Sonic Concepts 3: Speed Limits
by Exploder
Summary: Third entry in the Sonic Concepts series. Sonic and Tails have firmly established themselves as everyday heroes on Earth, but Sonic's actions don't always bring him friends or happiness. The duo's continued search for Robotnik leads them to Hong Kong, where Sonic finds out that they have more enemies than they think, and where his upper limit truly lies.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The office was clean and opulently decorated, mostly in red and gold, particularly the curtains and the carpet. It was empty, except for the man sitting motionlessly at the large oak desk in the center. Behind his leather chair, the windows showed the lights coming from the contours of the night-time city skyline in the distance, as well as the moon above. Aside from the computer monitor, they were the only things illuminating the room at the moment.

Here, Yeung Chiu-wah had sat for hours, trying to make a decision. _The_ decision. The one that could change everything. One that, despite the risks involved and the commitment needed, could very well be worth it.

To aid him in making that decision, Yeung had been looking and relooking at news articles, including the same ones over and over on his computer. All of them, regardless of the newspaper they came from or the language they were written in, were about the same subjects: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles 'Tails' Prower, and GUN.

The change those mobians had brought about since they had come to planet Earth, Yeung knew, had been tremendous, to say the least. After six months of inactivity, they had begun showing what they really could do, using their talents and abilities to do what they believed was good.

Sonic had already taken down various armed groups and governments that had once thought themselves untouchable single-handedly, starting with Adabat and then continuing throughout the Middle East and Africa, and as a result had been credited been with saving thousands of lives from war and conflict. Meanwhile, Tails, the two-tailed genius fox, was now considered the inventor of a revolutionary energy source that hailed from their homeworld, the same thing that was now making once troubled American defense contractor GUN, not to mention himself, a multi-billion dollar success, all while continuing to gather dozens of patents to his name.

It took five more minutes for all of that information to really sink in. Once it did, Yeung abruptly closed the web browser. He finally decided what his answer was. And as he looked at the clock, he realized the time at which he did so was just right, too.

As expected, the cell phone on the desk began ringing, with the incoming number blocked from being displayed. The sixty-year old took a deep breath before picking it up and accepted the call. "Yes?" he asked quietly and calmly.

"So," the voice of Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik boomed, managing to sound bombastic even by just saying one word, "have you made your decision?" He made no attempt at hiding his anticipation for Yeung's answer. The right one, at least.

Which was exactly what he was getting. "I have," the elder man said, "my answer is yes. You will get your cargo."

"Excellent!" Robotnik replied loudly, and expressed his glee with a maniacal cackle that lasted for a solid fifteen seconds. "I knew you would do it! I knew it!"

"My man will deliver what you need before the end of the month," Yeung continued simply, ignoring the mad scientist's outburst.

"And mine will deliver yours, as agreed."

"Good. I believe it is best we do not speak again."

"Of course, of course," Robotnik agreed, "you won't regret it, I promise!"

"Hopefully. From here on, it is all yours to manage," Yeung said flatly, doing a good job of masking his emotions, unlike Eggman. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have…other people to talk to."

"Ah, yes. Well, in that case, good luck. It will be great doing business with you! So, I suppose, goodbye! Hohohoho…"

The annoying mad scientist hung up, which made Yeung glad, as he likely never had to hear that laughter again. There was still another call he had to make, however, before he could leave this place. He dialed the number and waited patiently until it was picked up. "Mr. Yeung?" the male voice at the other end of the line said in Mandarin Chinese, "how was it?"

"It's done," he replied in the same language and tone, "the cargo will be shipped to him soon."

"_Hen hao_. You've done the right thing," the other voice said in satisfaction, "it shall work out well for you and all of us."

Yeung sighed. "I hope so too."

"The next time we need your services, we'll contact you again," the voice continued, "thank you for your efforts, Mr. Yeung."

"You're welcome," Yeung replied, doing his best to sound good-natured before ending the call.

He stood there for a few more minutes, silently wondering about the decision he had just made. He wasn't even sure how much he was troubled by it, if at all. Just in case, however, he decided to go up to the small bronze statue of the Buddhist figure Guanyin in a recessed area in the side wall to light some joss sticks. There, he stood with his body bent slightly and his eyes closed before the Goddess of Mercy, asking for exactly that, if only because he knew what effects the consequences of his decision, including the one he'd just made and those he'd have to make in the near future, could have on his conscience.


	2. Chapter 1: Glimpses

**Chapter 1: Glimpses**

"We see and hear about him every day on the news, in the newspapers," the TV host began with just the right dramatic tone, "when he's not in a warzone trying to save people from military attacks, he's delivering food and aid to some of the most malnourished places on Earth.

"He had gotten his start when he intervened in the Adabat Civil War and defeated the Adabat Revolutionary Army almost singlehandedly, before moving on to quell violence and unrest in the Shamar uprising, and even personally bringing in that regime's president for his war crimes. He has done the same throughout Africa, where, in addition to his peacekeeping efforts, he has also delivered much food and supplies to some of its most malnourished areas. Some analysts have said that, in total, his work in providing aid and breaking up armed conflicts has saved at least forty thousand lives.

"And yet, despite all these accomplishments, we don't actually know that much about him. Who is he? Why does he go into these places to help out? What motivation does he have doing so? Many have asked these questions over the past year, waiting for the moment that they are answered, or wondering if it will even come.

"Well, wait no more, as that moment is now," he announced somewhat proudly, "as he is our special guest for today's interview, the first official interview, in fact, that he has ever received since coming to our planet…may I present to you, Sonic the Hedgehog! Welcome!"

The camera zoomed out to reveal Sonic seated casually on an armchair. Realizing that he was now visible on at least tens of millions of television sets, he smiled, waved, and gave a thumbs up, as per his usual custom. "Uh, thanks," he began awkwardly, "I'm happy to be here."

"No, thank you for coming," the presenter responded heartily. "So, shall we begin?"

The hedgehog nodded. "Sure, alright."

"If you don't mind, Sonic, I'd like to ask you: what do you think of your own work so far?"

"Hmm…" Sonic had already expected such a question, yet he still wasn't entirely sure how to answer. "I guess, uh," he began, "I'm happy that I managed to make a difference here and there, but at the same time, there's always that feeling that I could have done more or better sometimes. Still…I try to look at the positive side as much as I can, which there generally always is, unless it's, you know, some really serious mistake or whatever. So far, though…" He took a moment to clear his throat, before stating with a sudden confidence, "I don't feel guilty about any of my current actions. I'm happy to have helped people, and to continue helping in the future. I regret nothing whatsoever." Sonic liked to think that right as he said that, TV audiences across the world were cheering and applauding.

"Alright, thank you," the presenter said gladly, "anyway, another question commonly heard: Many have noticed that despite your speed and powers, you are much more likely to take the pacifist route while in combat. Is there any particular reason for this?"

Sonic just shrugged at this one. "Well, if I am able to bring, uh…" He really didn't like using the word 'enemy', and had to stop briefly to think of the best substitute. "…someone armed and dangerous down without causing harm to him or anyone, you know, non-lethally, might as well do so, right? And besides, it's not like it's something special that only I do. Many policemen are also trained to bring in or to take down threats like that alive, and only use guns if they have no choice. For me, in my case, I hate to sound like I'm bragging, but I feel like, since I have my speed, I always have a choice to do so, and it's the one I'll always take."

"Interesting, thank you. So you do this even to, say, enemies that are known to have committed grave atrocities?"

"Absolutely," Sonic answered without hesitation while looking straight at his host, "killing…it's just not something I can do, I think. And it's not just how I am able to take them in alive, you know, but that I feel like I…have to. I believe in, you know, giving people chances, and understanding why they do bad things, rather than simply dismissing them and taking their heads off, and, I don't know, help them see the errors of their ways, I suppose. Evil, I think, rarely comes from nowhere at all. There usually is a reason for it, something understandable, even if not justifiable. Even if it's the most pathetic excuse possible for committing the most horrible crimes, I still feel like I have to…make them see the light, somehow."

"Very good. Now, we come to the crux of this discussion, perhaps the most important question…" Sonic was already able to figure out what it was before it came. "Why?"

But that didn't mean he could figure out what his answer should be. The hedgehog needed just one more moment to think about it. During the silence, the audience around the world watched with immense anticipation. Why, indeed?

Then he finally got a desirable answer, which was actually fairly simple. "Well, why not?" Sonic replied with another shrug. "I mean, I was born with this ability, and…I like to run around for leisure too, it's my favorite hobby…but this seems like the best way to really use it. What else could I do with it, crash into cars? Go racing? Uh, I admit though, I'd kinda like to try that second one someday. With someone other than Tails, I mean."

Both of them stopped briefly for a quick laugh. Mainly because with the new flying technique the two-tailed fox had discovered and refined, it wasn't even a given anymore that Sonic could beat him in a straight-line race, at least as long as it didn't last more than five minutes – the hedgehog still had the upper hand in stamina and endurance.

"But yeah, you know, I guess the simplest way to say it is, if I can, I should. I can, therefore…I do. Yeah, let's go with that."

"Alright, thank you, Sonic. So can we assume that this was also what you did back where you came from? On Mobius?"

Sonic was starting to have an uncomfortable feeling about where this could head to, but kept calm nevertheless. "You could say that. I guess I had to start somewhere."

"I see. Now, moving on, it's been mentioned that you are familiar with Dr. Robotnik, the guy responsible for the airport attack on the day all of you arrived and what happened in Adabat almost a year ago, and now suspected to be an arms dealer in hiding…to be honest, there is still so little we know about this man. Could you perhaps elaborate on who he is?"

The grin slowly disappeared. "Uh….okay, sure, it's only fair I explain what I can," Sonic replied. He was actually starting to feel a bit worried now. "What would you like to know?"

"Do you know where he comes from? Is he actually from here or Mobius?"

"Here, definitely here," Sonic said affirmatively, "though exactly where, I've never known. It's something only he knows."

"So he was transported onto your planet by the Chaos Emerald, as you call it, a long time ago, right?"

"Pretty much."

"What do you know about him personally?"

"Well, I know that he was-I mean, is, very talented at what he does, at engineering, building robots, machines, computers and stuff, kinda like Tails. I can only imagine what kind of good he could bring about if that's what he used his genius for. But, in the end…" Sonic shook his head. He could sense a certain inevitable question coming up, and was even less sure about answering it than the previous ones.

"Do you know why he…happens to be like that?"

And there it was. Finally. Sonic knew one day that it would come. At least he had knowingly chosen when it would happen by agreeing to come onto this show, rather than it being asked of him when he didn't expect it and catching him off-guard.

Sonic the Hedgehog visibly took a deep breath before he decided he was ready. "Something…happened to him," he began softly, "on my planet, I mean, long ago. And, you know what, I'll just say it straight here: my people…they weren't very nice to him. And honestly, I don't know if I feel like going into the details."

As he admitted the truth about his people, Sonic was starting to have that same tired, worn-out look that he was found having in Adabat, Shamar and other troubled areas he'd been to. Some of the photos of him with that expression had become quite well-known, to say the least.

"I see," the presenter said after a surprised pause, blinking a few times, "do you know why they did that to him?"

Sonic stopped once again. In truth, that was a question he'd asked himself for years now as well, but had never really found out the reason for it, despite his asking around on Mobius long ago. He was sure it had to exist. Evil rarely came out of nowhere, or so he believed. The idea that his own people were somehow the exception to that rule was something he found disturbingly unacceptable.

So far, the closest thing he could come up with to explain it, or at least satisfy himself, was that it wasn't really evil at all. "I guess it's, you know, just ignorance," he continued, "something like the racism you find in history books, and unfortunately still in parts of the world…our worlds. Or a superstition, maybe, the same thing that made Tails' life miserable when I'd first found him, because they thought a fox having two tails was a bad sign. Or both. I don't know.

"I understand. Back to Robotnik, though, what happened to him after that?"

"He, well, got broken, and changed into something else. He then managed to get into a position of power, a position to exact revenge on those who did those things to him. It's kind of a long story, but needless to say, I've had to fight him ever since.

"After that, I just kinda, you know, expanded my responsibility. I don't want people to end up like Robotnik, nor do I want them to become victims of people like Robotnik. I want to…"Sonic lifted his head high before letting it out. "I want to save everyone. Even the bad guys."

The interviewer nodded silently in intrigue. "That's an admirable goal, to say the least. So is it fair to say this is linked to the reason you continue to fight?"

"Don't get me wrong, I would have loved helping people out even without what happened to him," Sonic clarified, then added softly and solemnly, "I just think, you know, that, when I said I do what I should do earlier…Robotnik is the main example of what happens…when I don't. When people don't. And I can assure you that, one day, I will find him, and I will…try and make him normal again, I guess."

"Ah," the presenter acknowledged, "very well. Additionally, Sonic, I'd like to ask, in your personal quest, do you ever feel like your faith in humanity is…challenged? After seeing some of the admittedly unpleasant things some of us can do in the situations you've encountered?"

"Hmm…" Sonic was quiet again for several moments. "Well, I've seen all kinds of things done by people in war. Yeah, there's a lot of bad, but there's plenty of good actions carried out too. You know, people risking themselves to protect others, giving them food and shelter when they don't have any. I've seen people sacrificing themselves to protect others, even complete strangers, with my own eyes. Normally people just ignore each other, you know, while out on the streets, but when bombs are falling and people around you are getting killed, it really makes you stick together to help out. So I think that it's kinda funny, in that sometimes, the worse situations bring out the best in people. I mean, people already help each other in natural disasters like earthquakes or floods. Even in a man-made one like war, it's no different.

"As for the bad stuff…well, I feel sad seeing people kill each other, but I know it usually happens over some really complex stuff that can go back a long way. It's hard for me to judge others that way when I remember that. And even if that's not the case, well…" He took a deep breath before completing his statement. "…it can't be any worse than what I've seen on my world, can it?"

There was an unusually silent and long pause after Sonic was done. He wasn't sure what to think about his overall appearance on this show, in front of so many people. It had always been rather difficult for the hedgehog to truly give out his reasons and motivations for fighting due to how they reflected on his people. Yet, at the same time, it was probably best he wasn't regarded as an enigma by the world. Already there had been suspicions from a few quarters about Sonic's true motives and allegiance, about how he was possibly a pawn or a weapon used by the U.S. government, especially given that he and Tails had earned their U.S. permanent residence some time ago.

The allegations had annoyed him greatly, but he'd realized later that if a major public figure like him, the likes of which the world had never seen before, never said anything about his own actions, could he really blame others for coming up with their own theories regarding himself?

_Yeah, it is better this way_, Sonic decided, _otherwise you'd never have accepted the offer for this interview in the first place_.

"So that's how you see it," the host commented with interest, "you're definitely one to be idealistic, Sonic, especially considering your experiences. I wish you luck in spreading that attitude around."

And with that, Sonic was smiling warmly again. "Thanks."

"So, final question, what do you say to allegations that you are a tool for the government or the military, that you are actually carrying out orders that came from them?"

_Aha!_ Feeling glad that to be asked of this question at last, he replaced his smile with a sterner look before answering. "Short answer: No. Absolutely untrue. Long answer: if I ever do work for anyone, it won't be individual countries or regional organizations, you know, like NATO, but only international organizations like the UN or Red Cross. Do people accuse them of being tools of conquest? You know, honestly, I think the UN is a great concept, because we don't have anything like that on Mobius, and I'm definitely doing more for them eventually.

"But anyway, I can't please everyone. Somehow, I don't think there'd be fewer complaints if I just sat my ass on a beach while Shamar's people were getting killed by their own government or whole families not having anything to eat or drink in Africa while also getting killed in crossfires between warlords and armies, while the big countries get into petty squabbles over what to do because they have conflicting interests in those places, so all they do is talk, you know, condemn what happens there, but not walk. I can go there and get things done with my bare hands and without dealing with all of this political bureaucratic stuff. If I do something, I get complaints, but people are saved. If I do nothing, I get complaints anyway, and people die. So, it's really a no-brainer for me. Like I said earlier, I don't regret anything.

"That said, though, I know I'm not perfect. I'm only human…er, mobian, but whatever. Sometimes I worry that I might do things I think are good, but end up backfiring. Like, Adabat, for example, their military has taken over the country since I helped them last time and is imprisoning people left and right…I understand the complaints about that one, but I don't know what the best way to deal with that is. Other than that, I also think I need to do even more than what I'm already doing, and look at more troubled areas that don't get much attention. I'm open to all advice on what I can do, and if any of you have some, please don't hesitate to send it to me or Tails. Because as much as it looks like I can do all of this alone, well, no, I can't. I need your help and support. Only then, I think, can we make some serious, positive, differences."

Sonic paused briefly to take a deep breath. Then, unexpectedly smiling again, he added, "you know, I'm kinda glad you asked me that. And, uh, sorry if I'm delaying the next show."

Once again both of them chuckled. "Thanks for your clarification there! Well, unfortunately it looks like that's all we have time for. So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, Sonic the Hedgehog and everything you wanted to know about him, straight from the horse's, or should I say, hedgehog's mouth! Again, Sonic, thank you for coming! It's been an honor!"

"Nah, the honor's mine, sir," Sonic said sincerely as he and the interviewer got up to shake hands. The timing, he thought, was just right. Aside from not wanting to stay too long and possibly run out of things to say, there was also another talk he had to attend soon, albeit not as the speaker. _For once!_

* * *

Soon after leaving the talk show's studio, Sonic made for his next destination quickly, which fortunately wasn't that far away.

Within a few minutes, the hedgehog arrived at UCLA. More specifically, he was now before the open doors of the hall where the university's special guest of today was giving a speech. Despite his fame and reputation, Sonic was amused to find that he still had to write his own name down on the visitor list outside before the guard could allow him in. _Eh, it's just his job_.

Sonic casually walked inside, before stopping to smile at the little VIP on the stage that the audience was listening intently to.

"…and I know this probably sounds cliché, but…" Tails spoke as he walked around on the platform with the microphone in his hand, "you are very fortunate to have had a well-rounded education and school life, all the way up to this level. I know I wish I had one, rather than just being stuck in a library for the first few years of my life," he continued, sounding slightly wistful. Meanwhile, Sonic had simply taken to leaning on the back wall, as there weren't any empty seats left, and besides, he thought he'd give the audience a surprise when they turned around to leave. Strangely, Tails didn't appear to have noticed him entering.

"It applies even more, I think, to higher education, especially considering rising college costs these days, which makes it all the more precious. I can't imagine what it's like to study in a proper atmosphere, with trained teachers and lecturers to teach you, in a comfortable classroom or home, rather than needing to do it all by yourself.

"Also, you know, most of you were able to choose what you wanted to study. For others, they had to study certain things because they had to. I got myself to read engineering books 'cause that was the only option I had back then, and after that, I had to know even more about that because I was following Sonic in dealing with Robotnik's machines. Granted, if I could choose, I likely would still have chosen engineering anyway, but at least it wouldn't have been because I was forced to. So I think that it's really a privilege to have a choice when it comes to studying, something worth treasuring.

"And that's not even getting into the social life that comes with school, like making friends, taking part in activities, that sort of thing. Anyway, I shouldn't talk about myself so much. I guess my point is that, I know many of you have expressed admiration of me, and I suppose I can see why…but the truth is, you have a lot going for yourselves too. You've had plenty of things I've never had, and probably will never get to experience, not in the same way, anyway, which gives you a lot of advantages. I'm also pretty sure that, given time, you'll all do way more than I have so far. I know the fusion reactor design I've created is considered revolutionary, but really, if any of you got to study the Chaos Emeralds on Mobius and have Knuckles explain what he knows about them, you could easily get the same results. I was just lucky, that's all, that I could earn his trust, mainly because Sonic and I could help him against Robotnik. Ironically, I guess that's one thing I could thank Robotnik for." That earned several chuckles across the hall, one from the hedgehog himself who thought it was way too true.

"To sum it up, a proper education, and the experience that comes along with it, is one of the greatest things a person can have in life. It's not the be-all, end-all, of course, but I can't imagine a life that can be improved without it. Remember to _never_ take it for granted. If you really want to be like me, that's fine, but I'd rather people not take the same route I did to get here, especially if there isn't anyone else like Sonic there to help you.

"So…that's all, I suppose. Thank you for listening, and have a good day!" As Tails concluded, the audience gave a loud applause. The fox decided to bow in response, as well as mention one other thing. "Oh yeah, and by the way, Sonic? I can see you, you know. Thanks for coming!"

Everyone in the hall abruptly turned around to see the hedgehog grinning and waving sheepishly, which resulted in pleasantly surprised cries all over and a lot of people standing up to approach him. Shortly before he was overwhelmed by the crowd, Sonic was able to see Tails winking at him in the distance. _Ah well_, he thought with a shrug, _I wasn't really trying to hide anyway…I think…_

* * *

A few hundred signatures and hugs later, Sonic and Tails had both managed to leave the university and simply hang out in the city throughout the afternoon, finding it rather refreshing to simply take the day off rather than needing to go on some adventure or inventing spree.

The sun was already setting as they arrived back home. The duo still lived under the roof of the Doherty family, their official guardian and main benefactor since they started staying on Earth, although with Tails' newfound fortune as a result of his inventions, they were considering buying their own land and property somewhere, with its own airfield and hangar that could house the Tornado. "Still can't believe they scheduled both of our appearances so close to each other," Sonic said with an amused shake of the head as he opened the front door and entered.

"Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't have minded being invited maybe a few weeks later than you were," Tails agreed, following behind the hedgehog. He then continued with a shrug, "I guess this was really the best they could do."

"Yeah…regardless, though, the important thing is we both presented ourselves as well as we could. You know, it's funny, I never could have imagined that you'd be quite the speaker just a year ago," Sonic said with a big smile, one that he was glad to put on again. "Really, you did well."

"Heh, thanks," Tails replied, unconsciously rubbing the back of his head in the process, "you weren't bad yourself. I think everything you said will help answer many of the questions people have about us. About you."

Sonic's smile waned somewhat at first, but he quickly brought the ends of his mouth back up again. "Hopefully. Anyway, let's have dinner, huh?"

Tails' ears perked up at the suggestion. "Sure! It's been hours since I last ate anything. We're supposed to cook for the others today anyway."

"True. Let's go!" They were both about to head into the kitchen when Tails abruptly stopped, wincing audibly. A surprised Sonic turned around to see the fox standing there, looking down at his left leg, apparently in pain. "Hey," Sonic said softly as he approached the kit with a look of concern, "you okay?"

Tails nodded. "Yeah. Sorry. It's just my foot acting up a bit, that's all. I guess I walked a little too much today." The fox had been having occasional bouts of pain in his feet in the past few months, having broken them in a risky act of heroism that nearly killed him over a year ago. They had fortunately been decreasing steadily since he left physical therapy. "Don't worry, I'm alright."

Sonic continued to look a bit glum, however. "Man, you'd think you'd have healed up completely already after everything you had to go through, and after so long."

"Well, it was a pretty bad fall. I wouldn't worry though," Tails said with a dismissive wave, "these things take time, but my leg will be okay eventually. And even if it won't, well, since I don't have any obvious scars…I might as well have a not-so-obvious one, huh?" He stopped to chuckle a bit, and then continued, "besides, my flying's faster than ever, so I'm not exactly slowed down. Not to mention that, in the end, it's still totally worth it." He gazed back at Sonic with his own confident, reassuring smile.

Finally, Sonic seemed placated, and in truth, he was happy that Tails could be so optimistic about it. If it had been his own legs…"I believe ya, bud. I guess you have some good points too. So, uh, let's go cook?"

"Okay!" They began moving again, though Tails was now walking with a slight limp which he would need to get rid of by resting. It was admittedly a bit annoying, and he could understand why it would bother Sonic, considering what the hedgehog's main physical ability was. Nonetheless, Tails knew where he stood. _It's just a small price to pay_.

* * *

Soon after they'd finished making dinner, Sonic and Tails had just sat themselves down in the living room when the front door opened to reveal Alan Doherty quickly walking inside. "Hey, guys," he said as he took off his suit and hanged it up, doing it faster than usual, "nice job presenting yourselves today. You've cooked already?"

"Hey," Sonic greeted, "thanks, and yeah, it's all on the table. We just put 'em, there, in fact."

"Good, then let's eat right away," Alan responded hurriedly as he took off his tie, before putting it aside and practically striding towards the dining room, "come on, we need to talk. And don't worry about the ladies, they'll come back later."

"What's the rush?" Tails asked with a raised eyebrow, then made a possible guess, "did you find something out at work today?"

"Great observation. In fact, I have. Let's have dinner first and not waste time. And besides, I'm hungry."

Sonic and Tails exchanged looks before following the man to the dining table, feeling equal parts suspense and excitement over what Alan's discovery could be.

Minutes later, they were enjoying Tails' carbonara spaghetti, doing so in silence until Sonic decided that he couldn't wait. "Hey, uh, so, what is it?" he inquired before putting another juicy bundle of pasta into his mouth.

"You won't believe this, but I think…" Alan set his fork down before revealing the big news he had, "…I think we found Robotnik."

The mobian duo, both of whom were halfway chewing their spaghetti, immediately ceased all movement. Sonic damn near looked like he was going to spit it out, but fortunately managed to control himself in time. "We're listening," he said, his demeanor now totally serious. Mentioning the mad scientist's name was one of the few ways to make him like that.

"Okay, first off, you know Mazuri?" Alan first asked.

"The East African country? Yeah, sure, I've been looking at it recently," Sonic answered, "I heard the reports of the guerilla groups there being better armed in the past few months or something. Either way, last I checked…didn't sound too good."

"Quite an understatement," Doherty commented while shaking his head, "they have heavy military equipment of both Western and Russian origin, like armored vehicles and even attack helicopters…only in small numbers of course, but still the sort of things you wouldn't see these guys having in a million years." He took in another forkful before adding, "and a few hours ago, I think we found out how they've been getting them."

By this point Sonic had also paused his dinner. "Hmm…I'd like to say it's Robotnik, but…I'm guessing it's not that simple?"

"That's why I said I _think_ we found him. Anyway, basically it's like this: earlier today, the Mazurian military managed to storm a rebel camp, against all odds, and made a huge-ass discovery that'll be all over the news tomorrow. They found a secret factory or workshop of some sort, way more advanced than anything else in their country, maybe even the whole continent…" Alan looked down at his food, which, although he enjoyed, seemed to also be making him impatient. "You know, let's finish up quick. I'll let you see for yourselves."

They took only another minute to finish dinner, and after hastily dumping the dishes into the sink, Alan asked the two to come over to his laptop. He then turned it on, opened several images and let Sonic and Tails study them intently.

"So what do you think?"

"Wow…definitely looks familiar," Sonic said unsettlingly, the images of the shiny but darkly lit chambers and half-finished machinery bringing back memories of Robotnik's bases on Mobius. "I mean, Eggman ain't exactly an interior decorator. He always keeps the same design in his lairs."

"So you're absolutely sure it belongs to him?"

"Yeah," Tails confirmed, "I already recognize the room's surface paneling and magnetic cranes. It's really similar to what we once saw in his Mobian bases. My guess is this is another one of those large packages Robotik jettisoned from the flying fortress into the ocean before it blew up that day."

"But they didn't find Robotnik himself?" Sonic asked.

"Nope. They did, though, manage to capture a few of the rebels guarding that place alive. After some, uh, gentle persuasion, they were spilling their guts. Turns out that Robotnik has a second place like that in Mazuri, where he could possibly be hiding in."

This was certainly groundbreaking news for the duo, but Sonic still had a few uncertainties. "Wait, so how do you know he really is there?"

"We don't," Doherty admitted straight away, "that's why the CIA's flying drones and satellites to survey the area as we speak, among other techniques, to see if it fits with the information we've been given. No idea how long it'll take, could be anywhere between a week and a year. And some are worried that by the time we have confirmation, Robotnik, if he even is there, may have relocated to somewhere else again."

In the brief silence that followed, Sonic was able to pick up the hint Alan was selling to him. "You know, I have a feeling I know the reason you're telling us this," he said with a hint of a smirk, and then turned to Tails, "you doing anything else this week, bud?"

"Not really, I'm kinda free at the moment," the fox replied, before also making a determined smile and putting his fist against his palm, "and besides, it's kinda been a while since our last adventure together."

Sonic's smirk only grew bigger. "True."

"And come on, it's _Robotnik_. If he really is there, I'm not letting you have all the fun."

The hedgehog laughed heartily at this. "You know I wouldn't leave you out on something like this, Tails."

Alan looked like he was going to smile too, though he kept his composure. "Not bad, both of you," he remarked, "so when do you think you'll be ready?"

"Tomorrow morning, maybe?" Tails suggested while looking at Sonic, who nodded. "So I guess we'll go there in the Tornado again. I need to fly her more often too."

"It'd sure beat the old tin cans the UN fly me in," the hedgehog observed, and there was laughter again. He really missed being in, or rather on, the Tornado, as he commonly stood on its wing as it flew. The UN had refused to let him to do the same trick on their cargo planes, so he had to sit inside their aged, dusty and cramped interiors every time he was with them. Granted, he wouldn't be able to do that either with their own plane on such a long-distance flight, but he was sure the rear seat would still be more comfortable than that.

"Well, that went quicker than I expected," Doherty said in relief, "I'll be telling my bosses about this, and I'll inform you on any other intel they give that you need to know soon. Until then, go get some rest."

"Sure thing. I'm just glad we may be able to finally bring him in. It's so hard to believe…anyway, catch ya later. Let's go, bud."

They both turned to go upstairs when Alan called them again. "Hey, just a second," he said, now sounding less business-like.

"Yeah?" the duo asked and whirled around simultaneously.

"How are you both doing? Let's start with you, Sonic."

The simple question somehow caught them off-guard. "Well, fine, I guess," Sonic answered, "I know sometimes it looks like a lot to do, and well, I guess it is. I mean, I know things aren't magically going to be okay again across the world after I catch Robotnik. But at least it'd still be an accomplishment ten years in the making." As he concluded, he put on the most relieved and least cocky smile he'd had since ever. This, he thought, was nothing to smirk about.

"You, Tails?"

"Pretty good," the fox said, waving his tails about behind him, "I feel really satisfied. I don't know what else I could ask for, other than…ways to make the world better, maybe."

"Maybe you could do that for your leg first," Alan offered deadpan, pointing at Tails' left foot, "how is it?"

"Heh, not a bad idea," Tails replied with a chuckle before lifting and shaking the limb gently. Fortunately the pain had gone away already. "It's okay, though. No worries, it won't hinder me."

"Alright, that's good to hear," a content Alan said as he got up from his chair, "and, of course, thank you for doing this. You don't have to, you know."

"Dude? It's Robotnik," Sonic pointed out, sounding a bit amused at the remark, "of course we have to do it. Oh yeah, and you're welcome."

The two were about to head up to their room again when Sonic realized something about what Alan had said earlier, which stopped him. "Hey, uh, Tails, you go on up first."

"Uh, okay."

After Tails ascended the stairs and was out of view, Sonic turned back to Alan. "Hey, uh, my turn to ask something," he said quietly, "that 'gentle persuasion' thing you mentioned…it wasn't very gentle, was it?"

Alan was taken aback by the hedgehog's solemn expression and tone, but quickly realized he shouldn't be surprised – Sonic had seen and experienced enough to know how people used euphemisms. "No, I suppose not," he admitted with a sigh, "and before you ask, no, we did not tell them to do that."

Sonic just stood there silently, not exactly frozen, but clearly troubled about how he and Tails were going to act on information obtained in a less-than-friendly manner. Was it ethical to do so, even if it was leading them to Robotnik?

A minute later, Sonic settled on his answer. "Don't worry, we'll still go," he said, albeit now appearing less enthusiastic about it, "if only so that that interrogation wasn't for nothing."

* * *

**Author's Note: Props if you were able to figure out which show Sonic appeared on! It's real, though I don't think making real world people appear in fics is allowed here, so I've kept the show's identity anonymous. As a hint, it airs on CNN on Sundays at 10am Pacific Standard Time and 1pm Eastern Standard Time, and the host is Indian-American. Review please!**


	3. Chapter 2: Shocks

**Chapter 2: Shocks**

With much of its terrain being desert, Mazuri wasn't exactly a cooling place, and the temperatures were made even higher by the country's proximity to the equator. The late morning sun was already up, and there were no clouds to block out its oppressive intensity.

The flat sandy area was already cooked up enough to produce optical distortions, but now another source of heat other than the sun contributed to it. The Tornado's jet engines were facing downwards for a vertical landing, and as it got closer to the surface, more dust and sand were kicked up, enough to visually obscure the whole plane from a distance.

It wasn't the best place to land in, considering how sand could easily play havoc with engines and other machine components if they got inside, not to mention how risky it was, as landing an aircraft was quite a bit harder when you couldn't see outside the cockpit. Not that Tails had much of a choice, as the only non-sandy terrain was too far away. Blind landing was perfectly within the fox's abilities anyway, and besides, he didn't want to spend too much time under the sun.

Sonic and Tails only popped open the canopy after the dust had cleared. Both of them took a drink from their water supplies before jumping off. Even with the air-conditioner on full blast earlier, they were already sweating profusely at their hands and feet where many mobians perspired, soaking up their gloves and shoes.

"You ever been under this heat?" Sonic asked his friend while panting lightly. His numerous humanitarian missions throughout Africa meant that the hedgehog was at least a bit more used to it. The hottest Tails had experienced so far was in the Mojave Desert where Edwards AFB was located.

"Not really," Tails admitted as he took another sip, "man, I better take this bottle with me just in case."

"Let's go then," the hedgehog said, pointing to the edge of the cliff nearby, "wouldn't want to get a heatstroke before we've even started."

"Yeah," the fox agreed, too overwhelmed by the temperatures to laugh, "we should be able to get a good look of the base from here." Before moving out however, he made sure to take a small object out of his wrist device, or WRID and place it into his right ear. It was a minicamera that would record down everything they saw and did here for analysis purposes much later.

They brought out their binoculars to begin reconnaissance as they reached their vantage point overlooking the target area. Nearly a kilometer away was an encampment supposedly owned by the People's Militia of Mazuri, or PMM, a local guerilla group that had been repeatedly accused of crimes such as kidnapping and human trafficking. Outside were a number of large trucks and crates, and the place was tucked into a valley to reduce the chances of it being caught in a sandstorm or scanned clearly by satellites. Some activity was clearly going on down there, with more trucks entering the camp through the only road in the area.

Despite that, however, it was clear that the real action wasn't taking place outside. On one side of the sandy valley was a tunnel entrance, a man-made one, done professionally, which the trucks were now driving into. "You think these guys could have dug out something like?" Sonic asked with a raised eyebrow, "seems a little out of their league."

"Unlikely, from what we know of them," Tails answered, also finding it odd, "either this place was already here before they came…"

"Or they had some help," the hedgehog said as he put his binoculars down. "Not much else we can see from out here, is there?"

"Guess not. We'll have to find a way inside. Quietly, if possible."

They continued observing the camp for any possible methods of sneaking into the tunnel. No matter where they looked, though, their eyes always fell back onto the column of large cargo trucks. "Thinking of what I'm thinking, bro?"

"Yeah," Tails replied, putting his binoculars away and spinning his namesakes up, "we better hurry before we miss the ride."

* * *

A few minutes later, the final truck in the column finally reached the tunnel entrance. The two armed guards on both sides, seeing that the vehicle wasn't any different than the bunch that had entered earlier, gestured to let it pass.

As the truck drove deeper inside, Sonic and Tails, both flattening themselves against the cargo bed's top covering, let out a silent sigh of relief that they were finally away from the burning sunlight. The cover's cloth surface was still somewhat hot, but at least they weren't riding on top of one of the trucks ahead that had metal cargo containers. Sonic briefly glanced behind to see the light from the entrance slowly shrinking, until it was almost the size of a dot. It made him wonder just how deep or big this place was.

There wasn't any sound outside of the truck's diesel engine humming. In front, the end of the tunnel was coming up, with what seemed like a cavernous chamber lying beyond. The hedgehog was hoping that the driver would stop soon, as waiting on it for minutes was getting boring.

Then, rather abruptly, his wish was granted, as the vehicle's brakes were slammed on and brought them to a halt right before the tunnel exit. The sudden motion almost caused Sonic and Tails to fall off the sides, though they were able to grab the steel frame underneath the covering in time.

The duo laid there, confused. They heard the truck's doors open, followed by footsteps and hushed voices. Sonic was beginning to think that the truck may have suffered a mechanical failure of some sort, before he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

He turned to see Tails, whose eyes were now wide with concern, as he nervously pointed at something in the tunnel ceiling just a few feet above and ahead. Sonic followed the path of his finger, and finally saw it. Attached to the ceiling's jagged rocky surface was a small device with a barely visible piece of glass on it…a camera.

Right at the exact same moment, they heard the sound of guns, of AK-47s in fact, being charged to the sides of the vehicle. It was a sound Sonic could now identify very easily due to how commonly the weapon was used by the armed groups he'd faced. Tails hadn't been around the world as much, but he'd done his own research before coming to Mazuri, and also knew what it meant.

_Oh well,_ Sonic thought with a mental shrug, _so much for stealth!_

They each leapt off the side of the truck they were closest to just before the guns started firing and ripping the cargo cover apart. On the left side, Sonic landed on two militiamen with each foot squarely in their faces, while on the right, Tails dropped down behind two others and struck their legs with a tailswipe, causing them to fall over.

After dispatching the shooters, both of them rushed forwards, knowing that there were going to be quite a lot more coming their way. "Great, I knew we should have ridden under the truck instead!" Sonic said, sounding in disbelief at the way they were discovered.

"It was moving too fast for us to grab its underside without getting run over or chopped up by the moving parts," Tails quickly answered, "that said, that camera's a pretty big hint as to who's running this place."

"Got that right," Sonic said as they approached the entrance to the large chamber ahead where many militiamen were already alerted to their presence, and were armed and ready. At least, as ready as they could possibly be to take on people like Sonic and Tails.

Somehow, the fact that they had been detected didn't bother Sonic much. "You know what, I'm done sneaking around," the hedgehog stated, a hint of a grin right there on his muzzle, "less hiding, more running!"

The chamber was roughly cylindrical in shape, filled with various trucks and boxes that the men had been carrying around until they heard the gunshots. Now, they were carrying assault rifles instead and firing them madly at the duo, or rather, their afterimages as they raced around in blue and orange blurs respectively, leaping over obstacles and decking people in the gut or face. So far, it was going pretty typically.

They had just knocked down the last few gunmen in the chamber when more entered from another doorway, apparently a bathroom judging from the sign above it, across the room. Sonic revved up to approach them from the side, planning on doing the same thing to them as he did to those here, when he quickly noticed that one of them was aiming at him a weapon he hadn't seen before.

Just as he made that observation, the wielder fired, or perhaps more accurately, activated the weapon, and in an instant, Sonic was unexpectedly knocked off his feet. He found himself being picked up into the air, slammed into the rocky wall behind him, which would have hurt him badly if he didn't have his quills to cushion the impact, before getting pinned there. Around him, the wooden crates were also picked up and thrown against the wall, and even one of the large trucks nearby was shoved aside by the invisible force several meters as if it were a toy.

The hedgehog struggled in an attempt to get back onto the ground, but the pressure was constant and overwhelming. Already his vision was starting to blur as he felt his eyes being pushed deeper into his head than they were supposed to. _What the hell is this thing?_

The next thing he felt was his chest feeling like it was being compressed from the front as well, being crushed. It was growing more and more painful, and Sonic knew it was only a matter of time before his ribs got cracked. His pulse was racing madly, not only at the idea of an imminent and painful death, but at the realization that he was completely helpless. Only a minute ago, he had thought he was invincible and had the upper hand on these guys…

Then, just as abruptly as it had come, the force vanished, and Sonic, along with the boxes, immediately fell off the wall and collapsed onto the dusty ground face-first. He groggily lay like that for a few seconds before pushing himself up and shaking his head.

Sonic looked up to see a fuzzy, orange shape before him, and blinked several times to clear up his vision. Once he'd done so, Tails had come up closer to him, clearly worried. "Sonic, you okay?" the boy asked as he helped the hedgehog get up.

"Yeah, more or less," Sonic answered in relief while dusting himself, "just kinda, you know, creeped out. Thanks for taking care of those guys."

"No problem, I'm just glad I didn't also get caught in…whatever that was. Let's go check what it is!" Tails then turned around and flew over to the fallen militiamen he had tailsmacked a few seconds ago to save Sonic, intent on examining the strange weapon one of them had been using.

The weapon was long and bulky, and its business end looked more like a jet nozzle than a standard firearm barrel, making it clear that it didn't fire bullets. It appeared to be of the same size of a medium machine gun, and when Tails tried to pick it up, he realized that it had the weight of one too. "What's powering this thing?" the fox asked out of the blue with a frown, "Chaos energy?"

"You tell me," Sonic responded, sounding just as curious, "first the camera, now this…yeah, we better find Robotnik fast."

"Too bad it's so heavy," Tails remarked as they both proceeded into the doorway, "could have been useful."

"Yeah, but it's not really my style anyway. Come on."

The two walked up to the large steel door opposite of where they had entered, its dark red surface dusty but smooth, free of scratches, rust and other signs of decay that signified age. "Looks like this door was installed not too long ago," Tails said, examining it curiously, "I'm guessing it opens up vertically. Sonic, you see the switch there?"

The hedgehog noticed the switch to the door's right, which was currently displaying a red light. "Yeah."

"Alright, you go there while I take the left side. Hit the switch when I count to three. They must have more surprises for us in store behind this thing."

Sonic complied and took his position."Heh, I'd be disappointed if they didn't. Though if there're any more of those push-force thingies, we better be careful. I don't want both of us to be caught at the same time."

The fox nodded, feeling a bit unsettled by that possibility. "OK…three, two, one, go!"

One press of the switch caused its light to change colors from red to green, and with a hiss, the twenty-foot-wide door began sliding upwards, with nary a creak or rumble, and rather quickly too, as if it were much smaller. As it did so, both of them could see its underside, and therefore its thickness.

They peeked into the room once the door had risen high enough. It was completely dark inside, having not even the meager amount of lighting like the rocky chamber they were in now. Nothing was visible beyond the first few feet of the entrance, which was a smooth metal-plated floor.

Hesitant at first, the two traded nods before taking a few cautious steps inside, hearing low winds blowing ominously after they passed under the door. At the same time, Tails had turned on the flashlight on his WRID, making a mental note to add some sort of nightvision to it later…hopefully when, rather than if, he could.

The fox aimed the light in several directions to obtain more information about the room, discovering that the chamber was noticeably smaller than the one behind them in every dimension, especially the ceiling. More interestingly, however, the surfaces were metal panels rather than cave rock, a sign of increasing sophistication the deeper they went into this base, and with that, potentially increased defenses – increased danger.

As if to punctuate that, the steel door suddenly and loudly slid shut behind them, causing both of them to jump and shrouding them in total darkness. Their instincts made them react differently after that – while Sonic turned around to look at the door that he couldn't even see now, Tails kept looking forward, light pointed in the same direction, worried that something bad was about to follow.

He frantically scanned for any sign of danger ahead, before noticing something that seemed nearer to them than the distant wall behind it, something metallic and light brown. Nervously, he moved the light upwards, noting that it seemed to have wheels…armor plates…and finally, a cannon aimed straight at them.

"Sonic, dive!" As Tails jumped to the side, Sonic looked in front again just in time to see why, before doing the same, right as an explosive shell struck and blew up the floor where they had been standing a mere second ago.

The armored fighting vehicle continued firing rapidly at Sonic, who wasted no time running along the side of the wall despite the darkness, avoiding the shells that continued to explode behind him. His only source of illumination at the moment came from the muzzle flashes of the AFV's cannon when it fired, which gave away its position but didn't help him see what else was in the room, or even how far the wall opposite the entrance was.

Not wanting to risk crashing into said wall, Sonic decided to circle the vehicle instead, and started to turn. It took him a few seconds to make one round, after which he discovered that the tight turning radius made it hard for him to run at full speed, allowing the AFV's turret to follow him easily.

As he began his second round, Sonic started feeling what seemed like a really strong perpendicular wind following behind him, threatening to blow him off course. He immediately realized that this was the same force weapon as the one that nearly crushed him in the previous room. With the main cannon still firing nonstop, he gulped at what would happen if he got pinned against the wall this time. "Hey, Tails!" he called out loudly, feeling the dangerous force tugging at his quills, "this tank has the same weird weapon like outside! You gotta help me out!"

Tails was hovering in the air as high as the room would allow, shining his light onto the vehicle's turret. Drawing on his knowledge of military equipment, the fox guessed that the AFV's main weapon was at least 30mm in diameter. "I got it!" he yelled back, understanding that the AFV's crew planned to do a lethal one-two punch on Sonic, which meant that his first task was to find and disable the same wind force weapon on this vehicle.

His attempt to do so, however, was interrupted by a second set of weapon noises filling up the room –automatic gunfire. Tails felt bullets whizz by around him, and immediately could tell they were coming from the sides. They had, of course, planned to be able to target more than just Sonic here.

Thankful that he was already flying in the first place, Tails began acrobatically dodging the shots, looping and whirling around as much as possible in the limited space he had. He knew he could not keep this up for long – the chances of getting hit were too high, and he still needed to help Sonic before the AFV's crewmembers got creative and changed tactics. "Sonic, just hold on!"

It took at least three seconds of very quick glances and blocking out the deafening bang and booms that flooded the acoustically reflective room, but Tails was able to determine the exact locations of the sources of gunfire – there were only two, one on each side near the ceiling, which made things easier. As with the AFV, the only lights that gave them away were the muzzle flashes, and if their shots were landing so closely, they had to be using nightvision. Remembering that his light was still on, the perfect plan occurred to him at once.

Tails rose to the same height as the machine gunners and, aiming his light forwards, he spun around in the quickest 360 he could manage, the 500-lumen beam of the xenon flashlight passing each window within less than a second. Already bright enough to disorient human vision in ordinary situations, shining a light with such intensity at someone wearing nightvision goggles was almost like stabbing him in the eyes.

Sure enough, the gunfire ceased, and despite the disruption of his auditory senses Tails thought that he could hear cries of pain coming from around him. That was his chance. Examining the AFV's roof once more, he saw his target: a wind force gun placed on top of the vehicle as a secondary, independently-moving turret, though for now it was spinning along with the main turret in line with the main gun, still trying to hit Sonic. And currently, the hedgehog just so happened to be on the opposite side of the AFV.

Sonic continued circling the thing. Without Tails' light he was doing so in complete darkness that was interrupted every half-second by the cannon's muzzle flash always coming from his left like a stroboscope. It was disorienting enough, worsened by the constant assault on his eardrums. None of this helped his running performance, which was decreasing slowly but surely, and the only thing that wind weapon needed was just a few inches to close the gap, and if it did, so would the main cannon.

Without that secondary weapon the main cannon wouldn't even be a problem, as Sonic had already noticed the pause between each shot, which was short, but still long enough. It would allow him to slip behind the cannon's rotation and strike at it. Already he was getting worried and impatient. All he needed to carry out that plan was for Tails to-

SMASH! Out of the corner of Sonic's eye, a golden disk illuminated by the muzzle flash smashed into the top of the AFV, and the unsettling 'woo' noise of the wind force weapon that had been following him for the last thirty seconds immediately stopped.

_Oh, finally!_ Grinning again, Sonic quickly hit the brakes, doing so at just the right time so that the cannon would swing over him fire its next shot ahead of him rather than straight at him. Before the crewmembers could stop to readjust their aim, Sonic took the chance to jump and spindash into the main cannon's barrel, with just enough force to dent it but not sever it, as the latter could still allow the weapon to fire.

The next few seconds were spent cleaning up the fight as Tails flew back to the shooting windows and tailwhipped each shooter into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, the AFV began to move for the first time, lurching forward in a desperate attempt to squish Sonic, but by then, the hedgehog wasn't even on the floor anymore. He had jumped onto the roof and opened up its entry hatch to drop himself inside.

After a few muffled shouts and punches, the room was finally quiet, save for the vehicle's low engine hums and the whir from Tails' spinning namesakes, which stopped as he landed on the ruined floor, now mangled and torn up by the 30mm explosive shells, with debris of metallic panels all over the place.

Sonic climbed back out of the vehicle and jumped, landing next to Tails. "Nice job, bud," he said with a great sigh of relief as he held his hands up to his ears, "damn, that noise was driving me _crazy_."

"You said it." Tails nodded before he did the same gesture. His ears were still ringing like there had been a marching band right there in his auditory canals. "No problem though. You had a pretty good plan yourself."

The hedgehog started walking towards the other side of the room. "Let's keep going. Boy, am I going to give Robotnik an earful when I find him, if you know what I mean."

That earned him a chuckle. "Let me join in?"

A smirk. "Sure thing."

Before they could continue their walk or joke any further, however, the door ahead slid up by itself, allowing light as well as a bunch of armed goons in. Seeing their silhouettes already prompted Sonic and Tails to leap into the air to avoid the gunfire that started almost right away.

The gunmen had attempted to send as much lead into as big an area as quickly as possible using automatic shotguns, but it still wasn't enough. They let out a total of eight shots before two blue and golden balls spun into them at the same time, knocking the whole group backwards several meters.

In an instant they had uncurled themselves and were back on their feet again. "Man, when will they ever learn that just showering us with bullets isn't going to work?" Sonic couldn't help but ask, "they could at least try water, or fire, or maybe burning water or some-"

"Don't give them ideas," Tails replied, laughing lightly, both out of nervousness and humor, "and technically they kinda just did, so we can give them that much at least."

"True."

They then heard more gunshots again, causing them to tense up in preparation to dodge or strike, only to realize it wasn't aimed at them – it had come from another room, down the bland metallic hallway they were now in, behind the only door there.

After a few more shots, both of them ran up to the door, confused and worried. It slid upwards, revealing several more men facing away, frantically firing their guns, not even noticing or caring about the entry of the duo, who proceeded to swiftly whack them down before even checking what else was in the room.

Only after the shooters were unconscious did they look back up to see what they had been shooting at, and the answer caused them to gasp in shock.

In the corner of the room were several men, a group of five, lying on the floor, bleeding profusely from their gunshot wounds. One of them was still moving, his hand clutching his chest while moaning weakly. As they got closer to the bloody scene, they saw that his face, especially his eyes, gave away not just signs of pain, but that of surprise as well. It seemed like they did not expect to get massacred like this.

"Hey, you're gonna be alright!" Sonic blurted out without even thinking as he knelt down against the dying man. At the same time, he and Tails noticed something else. The slain group that lay before them didn't seem to be locals like everyone else in this base, having black hair, a considerably lighter skin tone, and Asian facial features. Aside from that, they had numerous tattoos over their bare arms – through the blood, they were able to make them out to be dragons. Who were these people? What were they doing here?

Sonic chucked those questions aside for the time being. One of them was still alive, likely not for long, and they had to do what they could to accompany this man in his final moments. They should say something to him…but what? Asking 'are you okay?' wouldn't exactly be appropriate now.

As cold as it seemed, Sonic decided it was best to see what he could tell him before he kicked it. "Can you…speak?" he asked quietly, eyes locked onto his. He'd almost asked if the man could speak English before changing his mind.

The dying man moved his head up and down slowly, just barely enough to be perceived as a nod.

"Could you tell me anything? It's okay, don't rush. It's okay."

His lips seemed to be trembling as he struggled to say something. Tails knelt down as well, putting his right ear up close, hoping the man could get it out. His eyes told them that he was desperately trying. "_Wong…Wong Heng…_" he finally muttered.

"What was that?" Sonic turned to face Tails.

"Wong Heng. That's Chinese…I don't know what it means," the fox replied, shaking his head, "I have a feeling it could be a name though."

Sonic turned back to the Asian, hoping to ask more. But it was not to be, as his progressively weaker breaths abruptly ceased, as if staved off by some invisible force that decided it was time. He was gone.

The hedgehog got up to his feet slowly, feeling cold inside. "Damn…what the heck just happened here?"

"Hmm…my guess is that they got shot so that they couldn't tell us anything." With a frown, Tails turned around to face the room, now more curious than ever. "That's why we better look for something here that could."

Sonic and Tails stepped away from the corpses to explore the large room, which looked very much like the workshop they'd seen in the photos on Alan's computer. In the center, sitting on slightly raised metal platforms were inactive AFVs much like the one they had dealt with earlier, with several tools and parts scattered nearby. "Sonic, I'm going to check out this vehicle right here and take a few photos. You go check the other rooms."

"Right."

As Tails began examining the military vehicle, Sonic went up to a pair of double doors behind it. Unlike the others, these weren't electronically powered and were manually opened. He grabbed the handles and pushed it inwards, his legs ready to leap in case of an ambush.

Fortunately, that didn't happen as he found himself in an empty, smaller, office-like room, with tidy white floor tiles and walls. In the opposite corner was a computer console set of some sort with many monitor screens, with a typical office chair in front of it. When Sonic approached it, he realized that it was, of course, a security camera system. The first screen from the left, he saw, had an illuminated view of the base's entrance tunnel. _So that's how they saw us_.

Sonic also noticed that this room had no other doors – this was apparently the deepest part of the base already. Not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. Robotnik was not in this facility after all. At least they'd found more than enough to indicate that he had been here, and that the information was accurate on that front.

Putting Robotnik aside for a moment, Sonic scanned the other screens from left to right, seeing that all of them were looking over the rooms they had already been in…except the last few ones. What he saw on them was arguably more shocking than the dead Chinese guys – this one actually froze him completely into one place. "Tails…" Sonic managed to get out, "you better come and see this!"

Tails stumbled into the room, hastened by how urgent Sonic had sounded. "What is it?"

The speechless hedgehog pointed stiffly at the last two monitor screens on the right hand side of the console, and when the fox realized what he was looking at, he gulped in terror.

The room in the two screens appeared to have several rows of cages, the kind meant to keep small animals – except they were currently quite clearly having human prisoners. Child prisoners.

"We-we gotta get them out of there!" Sonic said loudly, almost in panic, "but where are they? There aren't any other doors back-hey, wait," he continued, pointing at the desk surface in front of the screens, "there's a switch here. Maybe it opens the door up?"

"I'll go back there and see if anything happens," Tails said as he headed to the door, "go ahead and flip it."

Sonic did so without hesitation after Tails had gone out, pulling the lever from one side to the other before checking the screens again. One of them, to his relief, showed a door sliding open vertically. "Tails!" he called out, "anything?"

"Yeah, looks like a secret door here just opened!" the fox replied from outside, "Sonic, come on!"

Immediately the hedgehog raced out the double doors, past the workshop, the unconscious gunmen and the massacre victims, back into the dark room where they'd fought the AFV. There, a second door to the side which hadn't been noticeable earlier had opened up, revealing the prison inside.

The room was sparsely lit with a few light bulbs, not as dark as the adjacent one, but enough to make Tails turn on his light. Unlike the other rooms, the place was dirty and decrepit, and had a bad smell. The floor and walls were plain uneven rock with no tiles or panels over them. Only the cages had a hint of any modernity here, with crisscrossing metal bars that would have been shining if not for the unsanitary substances on them.

The real horror for the duo was behind the bars. Children looking no older than twelve were crammed inside each cage with not much room to move around, and it was clear all of them were badly malnourished. They barely showed signs of being alive – a few of them probably weren't anymore – as they were curled up in fetal positions on the floor, eyes closed, not acknowledging or even noticing Sonic and Tails entering. From the looks of it, there were at least fifty kids here, with space for another fifty.

Already Sonic was starting to relive a not-so-pleasant memory. "My god," he whispered, remembering the base Alan had infiltrated back on Mobius and the prison there, "Robotnik's remaking his mobian prison right here, except with humans."

"Either that, or it's the PMM doing it," Tails replied, "and Robotnik doesn't care what they're up to." The authorities had found it difficult to get evidence of the militia engaging in human trafficking for years, but here it was now, right in front of them. Cold, hard proof, in the flesh.

"Whoever's doing it, let's just get these kids out of here first," Sonic said, hurriedly going up to a cage in the corner and examining the keyhole over the lock, "guess we need to find the key."

Before they could do or say anything more, however, a loud, sudden noise swarmed their ears, making them jump. It was an alarm, a klaxon blaring urgently every two seconds, and when the duo stepped outside to check, they saw that the dark room was now filled with spinning red lights near the ceiling, as was the workshop down the walkway. "Wait, so only now does someone know we're here?" Sonic asked, with a would-be tone of amusement that was wiped away by the shocking discoveries he'd made here.

"Doesn't make sense," a mystified Tails commented, "why would they only sound the alarm now? And who? It looks like we've knocked out everyone here." The fox turned to face Sonic directly. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Then, Sonic had an idea. "Wait, let me check the security thing again," he said before speeding back down the hallway and into the security room, trying not to see the corpses against the wall in the process. There was indeed something new here that wasn't around earlier, and it wasn't anything good.

Not for the first time, Sonic stood in shock as he saw a countdown timer on a digital readout on the console, showing 2:50, 2:49, 2:48…he quickly realized what it meant.

The alarmed hedgehog rushed out of there and back to Tails so fast that he didn't even see the dead bodies on the way there. "Tails, this place is gonna self-destruct in less than three minutes! We gotta get them out _now_!"

The fox's eyes widened. "What? Then we gotta find the key fast!"

"You know what? Screw the key! I'm trying something else," Sonic stated loudly, actually sounding angry now. All of the nasty surprises he'd had today were finally taking their toll on his mood. "Tails, you see if that big red door can still open," he told his friend before stepping into the prison again.

A nod. "Got it!" Tails had no idea what Sonic planned to do to free the children, but this wasn't the time to question him. He did not immediately head for the sliding door that led to the entrance, but instead went for the security room first. If there had been a switch for the prison door, there had to be one for the exit, right?

"Alright, kids, stay back from your cage door!" Sonic said to the trapped children inside the cages as he walked around, gesturing to them with his hands at the same time, aware that it was unlikely that all or even most of these kids knew English. "I'm gonna try something to get you all out, okay?"

The kids, who were now standing up thanks to the alarm noise, seemed to understand for the most part, as they did their best to stay well back, regardless of the lack of space. Some of them probably did it out of fear of Sonic rather than believing he would help, but he didn't exactly care as long as they performed the same instruction.

Finally, Sonic backed up against a wall, placing a foot against it and looking down the aisle between the cages to check its width. _Good, it's just right._

Then he let loose, pushing himself forwards towards the opposite wall. Just two seconds later, he'd planted his feet on it, and bounced off to head back in the other direction. As he did so, he curled into a spinning disk, quills made as sharp as possible, hurling himself down the aisle at a level near the top of the cage doors. When he reached the wall he'd started from, he bounced back in the same spindash state, except now he was moving nearer to the floor.

Hitting the second wall, Sonic uncurled himself and stood up as he saw the results of his work. After a short pause, the sliced metal bars on every cage slid off and fell to the ground with a cacophony of clangs. Seeing this, the kids – the ones who had enough energy, at least – let out a series of amazed cries.

Sonic repeated his horizontal slicing trick with the second aisle before speaking again. "Alright, everyone follow me! Come on!"

They probably only had two minutes left, but despite this, Sonic still patiently coaxed the kids to stand in line. Some of them, he saw, were unconscious or too weak to stand up, requiring others to hold or carry them.

The group was slowly led out of the prison into the dark room. Sonic looked back at the red door, which was still not open, to his dismay. Tails was right there, working on something next to it on the floor. "Tails! How's the door?" Sonic asked without masking his fear for the children's safety.

"I tried seeing if I could open it in the security room just now, but there's no switch, believe it or not," Tails answered, speaking as fast as he could while his fingers worked on the electronic panel that he'd pried off the wall, "I'm just resetting the code on this keypad lock to 1111. The good news is it's not very different from the kind I've seen on Mobius."

"How long more?"

"Fifteen seconds."

"Right…" Fifteen seconds seemed like forever to Sonic right this moment, as it meant standing there with an entire bunch of half-dead kids who would soon be fully dead if they weren't constantly on the move.

He turned back to look at them closely. None of them were even healthy enough to walk at human speeds, much less run. And there was a long tunnel up ahead that might as well have stretched on to infinity in their current state. The self-destruct sequence was unlikely to only affect the parts of this place made of metal. He needed a faster way to move them…and it occurred to him that there just might be one right here.

"Hey guys, wait here," Sonic told them before running back into the workshop. In there, he was able to quickly find two flatbed trolleys next to one of the AFVs, knowing that Tails commonly kept a few of them around in his own workshops too. Before leaving, he checked the security room again, seeing that the countdown was at two minutes. _Gulp!_

The hedgehog rolled the trolleys out into the hallway, the handle of one in each hand, glancing at the group of dead Chinese men one last time. That was a mystery he and Tails would have to crack later – for now, saving the kids was the priority.

"Okay, kids, get on board!" Sonic said, stopping the trolleys and helping the children onto them. He wasn't sure if there was going to be enough space for all of them, but goddamn if he wasn't going to try to make them fit.

Tails had managed to reconfigure the electronic keypad in the way he desired, punching in the new code 1111 without even putting the panel back into the wall. The red door slid open as swiftly as before. "Sonic, we can get out now! You ready?"

"Uh, not exactly…" Tails turned around, and saw why. In a somewhat morbid fashion, the children's malnourishment was a good thing, as it meant more of them could fit onto a trolley at once. Most of them – thirty to be exact – on the trollies now were the ones who couldn't walk, but this still left twenty kids that could to be forced to move on foot. Sonic himself could probably piggyback a few, but not all.

It was Tails' turn to have an idea as he looked at the tunnel ahead. The truck they had rode on to come in here was still there, and as far as he could remember, its engine was still on. "Sonic, I got it! Get those kids onto the truck there!"

The hedgehog immediately complied, recognizing what the plan was as gestured for the group to follow him into the stony chamber and towards the tunnel, dragging the trollies along at the same time. "You can drive that thing?"

"Maybe," the fox replied while opening the driver's entry hatch on the same surface, "it's worth trying!"

After reaching the truck, Sonic picked up a few kids at a time to place them into its cargo area at the back, while Tails climbed into the driver's seat. His short height meant that he had to adjust the seat all the way to the front first, and even then, he could still barely see over the dashboard. Not that it mattered, since he had to drive the vehicle backwards anyway – there was not enough space or time to turn around. "Sonic, you ready?" he asked as he placed the shifter into reverse.

"Yeah!" After helping the last kid up, Sonic quickly went back to the trolleys. "Let's go! Now!"

"Okay!" Tails placed the emergency brake down and mashed the accelerator, and with a loud grunt, the truck began rolling backwards. Behind (or rather, in front of) him, Sonic went first, pushing the trolleys as fast as he could towards the distant light without making the kids fall off, which was not very fast, to say the least, but he hoped it was at least fast enough to clear the explosions.

Oddly enough, it seemed that the trek out of the tunnel wasn't as long the trek into it like it felt earlier. The glowing, sunlit exit that seemed unreachable in time just now was getting closer and closer, and for the first time, Sonic felt genuinely hopeful. _These kids are going to make it!_ he confidently proclaimed to himself, _they're gonna live!_

But hope had a nasty habit of being crushed when you got carried away with it. The hole was now meters ahead, with the sunlight that had been oppressively hot when the duo had first arrived now looking very welcoming indeed. Too bad it wasn't the only thing waiting for them.

Before they could reach it, several men suddenly popped out from the sides, armed with AKs and rocket launchers, and opened fire immediately. Sonic, preoccupied with the kids in front of him and thoughts of what to do with them later, was caught off-guard, and quickly jumped over the trollies of kids to tackle the gunmen. Unfortunately, even he could not prevent the dozens of bullets from coming in and the rocket from surging by and slamming into the back of the truck.

Tails had already caught the gunmen appearing in the rearview mirror, but could scarcely get a word out before they pulled their triggers. The incoming rocket stopped his breath cold, and he instinctively opened the door to bail out as the explosive warhead blew up, barely escaping the resultant flames that consumed the cargo and cabin compartments completely.

Out front, Sonic was viciously punching, kicking, spindashing, whacking, and otherwise attacking every human adult-shaped thing he saw. He was furious at himself for having forgotten about the security outside. As if they would have allowed the kids, their 'property', to simply be escorted out of here like that. If they couldn't have the kids, nobody could. _That's how these people operate!_

Tails avoided the fires of the burning truck as he stumbled out. Something at the back of his mind told him that the kids inside were now gone, but he did his best not to let that thought assert itself – he could not believe it. He wouldn't. At the same time, however, a more rational side of him told him that the place behind him was still going to explode, and that he had to tend to the kids on the trolleys first while Sonic was busy.

The fox heeded the instruction he gave himself and pushed the trolleys forward. After pushing several feet, it finally happened.

There was a noticeable quake in the ground, and the dark hole they'd just exited was suddenly filled with a bright, powerful flame, like a supernova filling up an empty void in space. The fire was coming up very fast, something Tails was well aware of after a short glance, and pushed the trollies with all of his might.

The instant he knew sunlight was over them rather than stone ceiling, he pushed them to one side while jumping to the other. The flames roared out of the hole in the mountain as if coming from an angry dragon. Tails was able to avoid it, although the sheer heat and his proximity to it meant his fur still got singed. The fox collapsed on the ground, more out of surprise than pain, though it meant he couldn't get back up immediately to help Sonic. He only hoped that the kids on the trollies fared better than the ones on the truck.

"Tails!" Sonic shouted after kicking the last goon he could see in the chin, and rushed over to his friend, "Tails!"

"I'm…I'm okay!" Tails said as pushed himself up with his hands, his torso hurting as he did so, "check the kids quick!"

Eyes widening, Sonic ran over to the two trollies to check over the kids, desperately hoping that the gunmen just now had missed. But cruelly, they hadn't. Many of them had obviously been hit, with blood oozing out of some of their gunshot wounds. The heat that came separately from the exploding truck and exploding tunnel didn't help their chances either. The horror was instantaneous. The absolute worst possible outcome had occurred. "No…" Then, as if he hadn't taken a big enough punch to the gut, he turned to look at the burning truck that wasn't even visible anymore, obscured completely by fire in the tunnel. "No…"

Not finding Robotnik was one thing, but this?

There were then more gunfire and shouts coming from afar, but that didn't interrupt Sonic's sorrow or shock – for that to happen would now take a lot more. Tails, also horrified by the deaths but still aware enough of his surroundings, realized it was now on him to get Sonic and himself to safety – without any of the children. He knew what to do, even if he sure as hell didn't like it.

Grabbing a still frozen Sonic, Tails twisted his namesakes and lifted off with his friend, gloved hands joined together. He then began to move forwards in the air rather than upwards, and after a reaching a quick enough velocity, he began performing the trick he'd learned a year ago that would work just as well here. His tails stopped spinning and instead bent stiffly to his sides, and with enough concentration, they were now flying much faster away from the PMM reinforcements below.

A few spirals and a sonic boom in the air later, the flying fox slowed down and transformed back from jet mode into helicopter mode. The pain on his torso, combined with the stress that came from the events they'd just experienced made it hard to land properly, and so they'd simply crashed into the hot sand, right where they'd started out – the Tornado.

And then it was over. The duo lay there under the burning sunlight on the burning desert surface in despair, knowing that their mission had changed abruptly and failed utterly. The sun simply continued shining, showing no sympathy for their situation. Sonic did not get up, tears flowing now, thinking that he should perhaps just let himself die of a heatstroke here.

"Sonic…" Tails called out to him softly as he appeared over the hedgehog, his blue eyes sad, empathetic and wet too, "I know it's…bad…but…we gotta get out of here. We gotta get home."

Sonic did not reply, simply thinking that if the children couldn't go back to their own homes, he himself didn't deserve to either. But it was a bit too late for that, as Tails had already hauled him into the backseat of the Tornado and started its engines.

* * *

Thirty-six hours later, Sonic and Tails were back in the Doherty house. They hadn't said much of anything to anyone after returning from Mazuri, and the fox had simply glumly given his photos as well as the videos from the WRID's minicamera to Alan for analysis.

They were sitting in the living room, idling, trying to relax, and failing. Tails' torso and namesakes were neatly bandaged, though it wasn't the pain from them that kept him from resting. The TV was not on – their most recent work wasn't going to be revealed to the news, at least not anytime soon, and that wasn't exactly a bad thing considering how it had gone.

Alan Doherty entered the house at his usual scheduled time. "We've learned quite a lot at the Bureau today," he started quietly but matter-of-factly, "not sure if you guys are in the mood to hear it out?"

A few minutes later they were in Alan's bedroom, as Sonic and Tails had decided not to delay hearing any new important info – their feelings were irrelevant to this. "Courtesy of my colleagues specializing in China and Chinese affairs," Alan said as he opened up his laptop, "Wong Heng is allegedly a high-ranking member of the Wing Seng Triad in Hong Kong." The photo on the laptop was of a plump Chinese male in his fifties eating a meal at a table. "The tattoos from the dead Chinese guys in the photos are an exact match with the kind their members usually have." The next photo showed said dragon tattoos on some living, intimidating-looking young men with cleavers. "And the place Wong is normally said to hang out at, also confirmed by our friends in the Hong Kong Police Force to be Wing Seng turf, is a bar or restaurant called 'The Heart of Asia' in Tsim Sha Tsui." He then showed a photo of said restaurant's colorful, elaborate entrance.

"I just can't stop wondering, why were they in Mazuri in the first place?" Tails asked.

"Our preliminary guess is that they were trafficking weapons, or even kids-" Sonic tensed up noticeably as Alan mentioned the last one, "-though to my knowledge the Triads have never traveled as far as Africa to do stuff like this. But if the dying guy was right, Wong has to know something about this.

"And actually, speaking of Hong Kong, I've heard reports over the last few months about increasing gun violence between Triads there, even though it's always been a relatively gun-free place. The kicker is that these reports seemed to have started shortly after Robotnik disappeared from Adabat." A pause. "I don't know…I'm just trained not to believe in coincidences, that's all."

"When do we go?" Sonic spoke up for the first time, emotionlessly.

"Well, anytime you like, really, though obviously the sooner the better. Perhaps after your wounds are healed…both your outer and inner ones," he replied before coming up close to the two, who were sitting on his bed, and knelt down to their eye level. "Look, I saw the raw footage of what you were both doing in Mazuri. It's horrible and tragic, but it's not your fault – you were doing what you could."

Sonic begged to differ, but didn't say it out loud. Tails was simply downcast, his head and ears following suit.

Alan knew how personally they took such things, and couldn't blame them for that. Realizing that words weren't enough, he simply grabbed both of them into a hug. As they stayed that way in one spot, Alan could feel his chest turning wet as the two buried their faces into it.

"And if nothing else," he added as he gently held their heads back up, "you've got incontrovertible proof of the PMM's atrocities. The world will never view them the same way again after this. It's a pretty big blow to them, whether or not Robotnik's supporting them - even he needs to choose groups that have at least some popularity to ally with.

"Anyway, I understand if you need time for this. You can come talk to me anytime, okay?"

"Thanks," Sonic replied, wiping a tear away, "but it's fine. We're gonna go as soon as possible," he then proclaimed as he stood up slowly but determinedly, "we still have to find out who was helping them other than Robotnik, and find out what was up with that wind weapon there. And most of all, we're not letting those kids die for nothing."

"Yeah," Tails agreed, "and actually, since I've already stated on my blog that we could be going to Asia after traveling around Europe, we can head there as tourists without arousing suspicion from whoever's responsible there. It'll just happen to be part of our trip. Cheryl said I should be okay in a week," he added, looking at his bandages, "so I can start booking tickets now."

"Glad to hear that," Alan responded, "so I guess that settles it. Go get some sleep. You're both still messed up in more ways than one."

**Author's Note: Wooh! Finally managed to update. Took me long enough, even if I did have an exam earlier. Thank you for your patience with me.**


	4. Chapter 3: Everyone's Watching

**Chapter 3: Everyone's Watching**

_Where am I?_ Sonic found himself in a cave, its surfaces gray and jagged, like the ones he'd seen in Mazuri and Adabat. Even though there were no obvious light sources, he could still see, somehow.

The cave was in the shape of a large, almost perfectly straight tunnel, though Sonic realized that he couldn't see either end of it. They seemed really far away, almost infinitely so. The hedgehog was getting tired of tunnels, and he knew there was no way to answer his question unless he got out of here. He was prepared to sprint down one direction when he heard a sound from the other, from behind.

When Sonic turned around, he saw something that he didn't remember seeing. The cries were coming from a small group of children in the distance who were crouched on the chalky ground, cowering in fear from some unseen terror.

Without a second thought, Sonic turned around and zoomed towards the kids. They were in trouble, needed help…maybe he could help bring them out of this tunnel. From where he began, the kids were only a few seconds away. He would reach them really soon.

But as he continued running, Sonic began to notice that he was not getting any closer to the children, who seemed to be just as far away as when he started. It were as if the tunnel were stretching at the same speed as he was running, preventing him from ever getting close. No matter how much faster he tried to go, the distance simply did not shrink.

Just before he could consider giving up and slowing down, there was a sudden bright flash down the tunnel, and soon after that, a large fireball emerged, menacingly and quickly making its way towards the children who were now screaming loudly.

His heartbeat racing, Sonic pushed himself right up to and beyond the sound barrier, doing his best to reach the kids in time…but he couldn't even get close. Worse yet, this same mysterious and now malevolent force that was preventing him from reaching the kids did not do the same for the fire. As a last ditch effort, he tried to jump and even extend his hand towards them, to no avail. He watched in agony as the wall of fire raced into the kids, consuming them entirely, and then past them as their silhouettes were seen, their awful cries heard, for the last time.

The fire was still advancing without slowing down, the hedgehog now in its sights. Sonic had to force himself to ignore the heartbreak inside him and turn around to save his own life. He ran in the opposite direction, no matter how much it tore him apart to do so, since it would happen literally if he didn't.

But once again, it wasn't working. When he looked back, he saw that the fire continued to come closer, while he was getting no further away from it. Before it could swallow him whole the same way as it did the children, the hedgehog only had a few short thoughts. Was the tunnel truly stretching to not let him come close? Or was he simply actually stuck in one place? Had he tried hard enough to rescue the kids? If he hadn't, did he deserve to get out of here?

"Sonic?" an echoing voice called out from the other end of the tunnel, the one Sonic was trying to get to in order to escape. It took a moment, but he immediately recognized it.

"Hey, help me out here!" the hedgehog shouted back, voice cracking and arms stretched forward, "I think I'm stuck!"

"Sonic, are you okay?" the invisible speaker simply asked, the voice echoing, hollow, and not exactly helpful.

"Help me!" he called out again, tears now running down his face as the fire finally closed in, effortlessly reaching him as if he had been standing still the whole time, and for all he knew, maybe he had been. "Help-"

"-me?" Sonic the Hedgehog opened his eyes, shaking his head wildly right after that. He looked around, seeing that he was back in the plane, on his first class seat, the bright blue sky outside the window to his right…

"Sonic, are you okay?" And a concerned two-tailed fox to his left, looking at him with soft, friendly eyes, while placing a gloved hand on Sonic's shoulder.

"I'm…I'm fine," he replied before taking in a few deep breaths, "just a nightmare. Or daymare. Whatever."

"The same one as last night?" Tails asked quietly.

Sonic slouched on the soft leather seat, head looking downwards as if in shame. "Yeah."

After a pause of a few seconds, the kit sighed before speaking spoke again. "I'm sorry, Sonic."

The hedgehog blinked at his friend. "What for?"

"I mean, I'd like to be able to help you out, but nightmares…I really don't know what I can do about that."

"Well…" Sonic took a moment to think of any suggestions. There was only one. "It's okay. We just have to get to bottom of this whole thing, find whoever we need to talk to, and find Robotnik. It's that simple. Maybe then…my nightmares will end." Despite not really being in the mood to produce a smile, he still managed one at Tails anyway.

Now relieved, Tails simply smiled back. "I'll be with you the whole time, no matter what," he said, "we can get started soon enough. We'll be landing in Hong Kong in about twenty minutes."

It took that amount of time for the 767 to land, plus another twenty minutes to be processed through customs, but after that they were finally here, in the Fragrant Harbour. "Welcome to Hong Kong International Airport. 欢迎来到香港国际机场…" the speakers blared as the duo crossed the terminal over to the exit, luggage bags in hand. Needless to say, nearly everybody in the area were looking at them and taking photos, and remembering that they were officially just here as tourists, they waved back at them.

Sonic and Tails were able to grab a taxi, one of the many ubiquitous red and white ones in the city, after signing only two autographs. The driver seemed to have driven up to them very enthusiastically after seeing them. "Uh, this address, please," Sonic said, handing the slip of paper to the smiling man in front.

"Of course!" he replied joyfully with an accent, "right away!" The vehicle zoomed off just as quickly as it had stopped as the driver began his duty of being the first person in Asia to chauffeur his special guests around.

The two remained quiet for the first few minutes of the ride, having said quite a bit to each other on their flight here. The only voices heard in the car were coming from the radio. The broadcast, of course, was not in English, although it sounded like a news report. "Hehe, they're talking about you now," the driver said with a giggle.

"Oh?" Sonic had to admit he was intrigued by how quick the local news had picked this up, seemingly faster than in Europe. "What're they saying?"

"Just you landing, and speculation. Local reporters very nosy, nothing to worry about."

Tails simply smiled in return. "I guess so. Just really have to get used to being watched, that's all." Which would have been a good suggestion if not for the fact that there were more than just nosy reporters watching them.

* * *

"Boss, Sonic and Tails have arrived in Hong Kong. They left the airport a few minutes ago," the young man in a suit told his boss, who was at his desk.

Yeung Chiu-wah looked away from his computer monitor and at the lackey. There was a frown on his aged features, but his overall expression was not that of indecision. Concern, perhaps, but not indecision. "Is it ready?" he asked quietly.

"Yes, sir."

"Keep close watch on them. If they do what I think they'll do…you know the plan."

A hasty nod. "_Hai_."

* * *

**Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station**

"Alright, everyone listen up," Superintendent Chow Tak-yin said to the office full of cops, both the away-from- and behind-a-desk kind. "We have just heard that Sonic and Tails have landed in Hong Kong. Normally this wouldn't concern us, but a week ago, the FBI contacted us for information on a known Triad member, Wong Heng, and it is known that Sonic and Tails' guardian is an FBI agent."

"What is the problem, sir?" one of the men asked.

The middle-aged police chief rubbed his frowning forehead before continuing. "We've seen the video, right? We also know that Sonic and Tails went to Africa during that time, and had a…difficult experience there. Sonic is well-known to be quite reckless, especially when he is emotional. Because of that, the possibility of them causing a situation here can't be excluded."

The audience simply looked at each other, mostly puzzled and unsure what to think. The people in the room were part of a select few the FBI had allowed to see the video recording taken from Tails' camera in Mazuri in exchange for information on Wong Heng. It was indeed rather shocking and tragic to watch, but would the horrors contained in it really push Sonic to become a menace? Considering the pacifist values the hedgehog had publicly espoused?

One woman amongst the crowd who raised her hand seemed to think so. "Sir, Sonic is known to be opposed to violence, and has no record of killing anyone, even in combat. The contents of the video are indeed horrifying, but it isn't that much worse than his experiences in Adabat and elsewhere. It's hard to conclude that he will start now."

"I haven't concluded anything, Detective Cheuk," Chow replied flatly, "and being pacifist doesn't mean he wouldn't leave a mess behind, as you have already seen in the places he's been. And anyway, this isn't a debate. I'm merely suggesting keeping a close watch on where Sonic is likely to go to next."

"The Heart of Asia, right?" Rebecca Cheuk asked, but didn't wait for a reply. "I'll go, sir. I know that place."

"You were the one that collected evidence on one of their managers involved in the Triads years ago, right?"

"Yes."

"And you are confident they won't recognize you there?"

"The ones that do no longer work there."

Chow paused for a moment to consider it, eyes narrowing and looking away in the process. A few seconds later, he nodded. "Very well, you'll go in then. Everyone else will be in the support team. Let's try and get everything prepared within an hour."

* * *

The Heart of Asia was located at the corner of a cramped, rustic two-lane road that, without the various smartphone and electronics stores, wouldn't have looked out of place in the 1980s. As night approached, the plethora of neon lights in the area began to light up, bathing it in shiny colors. Underneath the sign, waves of customers were flooding into the entrance, hoping to satisfy their hunger, thirst, or other desires.

Of course, Sonic and Tails had come for none of those, having had dinner at somewhere cheaper before arriving. Despite the hedgehog's impatience, the fox had suggested that they at least look around the city a bit before going straight to business. Deep down, after all, they really did want to travel too. They'd taken several hours to tour the city on foot after setting down at the hotel, and Sonic had to admit that he did enjoy it, even if he felt like he shouldn't. Not after seeing what happened to those kids.

The two stepped up to the double doors, giving a few waves but otherwise ignoring the attention they were getting. The autographs were going to have to wait. Neither Sonic nor Tails had ever stepped foot into a nightclub before, and so everyone looked on curiously, wondering what they had come here for. The hedgehog hoped that he could keep their investigation relatively hush-hush from the public, at least until they'd gotten to the bottom of the whole thing.

The first thing they had to do was find the right person to talk to, someone that would lead them to Wong Heng. The Triad boss, they'd learned, usually preferred to stay out of public eyes. Fortunately, it seemed like they didn't have to search for long as the bouncer came up to them. "Excuse me, Mr. Sonic and Tails," the large-framed six-footer said with an accent, "you need to either pay a fee or show a form of invitation to enter." He did not address the fact the two were technically below the minimum age required for entry.

Sonic pointed one hand at his own ear while gesturing to the bouncer with the other, asking him to come closer. The man got the message and awkwardly knelt down so that hedgehog could whisper into his ear. Meanwhile, everyone nearby was staring at just what was going on. Sonic was fully aware of this, and for the first time it was making him nervous, less out of self-consciousness and more out of the potential that what they were doing could get compromised by the public. "I need to see Wong Heng," he said into the man's ear quietly.

The bouncer looked back at them, his sunglasses masking any confusion or surprise. "Do you have an invite?" he asked flatly.

_Hell yeah I do_. The hedgehog handed him a few rolled pieces of paper, glad that the guy didn't say anything that would reveal their intention for coming here. The fact that he didn't question who Wong was either meant that they had come to the right place.

The bouncer, making sure nobody nearby could sneak up on him, unrolled the papers. Seeing the contents actually caused his mouth to open abruptly. He glanced back at the hedgehog and fox, both of whom were glancing back, showing uncharacteristically serious expressions, with their arms crossed and lips straight. It was quite obvious they weren't here to play around. "Please wait a moment," the man responded silently before pocketing their 'invitation' and turning around, heading through the double doors, walking rather briskly in the process.

Knowing that it could be a while before they could go in, Sonic decided to address the crowd. "Hey, uh, want some autographs?" he said, putting on a cheeky smile, hoping that this would be enough to make them not ask too many questions, if any.

Fortunately it seemed to work as everyone simply rushed up to the duo excitedly, more concerned with the fact that this was their first time ever getting a face-to-face them, and not knowing when they would get the chance again. Two minutes later, the same bouncer came back out to inform them that they could finally enter, and by then they'd already handed out dozens of autographs and received just as many hugs, one of which was tight enough that it almost crushed the poor fox.

The interior of The Heart of Asia, as expected, was mostly dark, illuminated and accented by several rapid color-changing lights running along where the walls and ceiling met, as well a few smaller, more conventional ones over the tables, nearly of which were occupied by drinks and drunks. The bass of loud house music could not merely be heard, but felt, everywhere inside, originating from the dance floor in the lower level. There was enough noise and activity that most of the guests didn't even notice the famous mobian duo coming in.

One of them, however, did. "Sir, it's Rebecca," the detective reported, having come early enough to select a seat that allowed for a decent view of the entrance, despite the amount of people and lack of light, "Sonic and Tails just arrived."

"What are they doing?" her boss asked in response.

"They are…they're not sitting down. It looks like they're going to the back. I'll follow them."

"Really?" Chow sounded quiet surprised, though he managed to calm down considerably when he next spoke. "Okay, see where they're going."

"Yes, sir."

The bouncer led Sonic and Tails to a back corridor, beyond the bathrooms. Cheuk followed slowly from behind, her black blazers, trousers and shoes hiding her slender form nicely in the club's darkness, and watched as they disappeared behind a door, next to another tall, muscular bouncer. "Sir, I can't follow them any further. But I have a good idea what they're doing here," she said into her cellphone.

"What is that?"

Rebecca looked back at the door to get her final confirmation. She had no doubt now. "They're here to meet the boss."

* * *

Sonic and Tails found themselves in a small, neat room with some couches and a glass coffee table. It was plain, but to the hedgehog, also rather welcoming, mainly because it wasn't flashing rainbows in here every one-tenth of a second, lit up instead by simple fluorescent lamps. There was still the smell of booze, but he supposed it would be stranger for that to be absent anywhere in this place.

The bouncer gestured for them to sit down, which they did, before he headed into the adjacent room through a doorless frame and calling out to someone inside. A few footsteps later, the someone came out with the bouncer and sat down opposite of the mobians, dusting off his black suit.

"You two have certainly gotten my attention," Wong Heng stated with a stony voice while giving a stony stare, dropping the papers he'd been handed just now onto the coffee table, which were in fact photographs of the dead Chinese men in the Mazuri base, as well as stills showing the imprisoned children there. "Before we talk what you came here for, I'd like to know what happened to my boys." Something about his tone suggested that that if his guests weren't a pair of robot-smashing, bad guy-whooping speedsters from another planet, he wouldn't be as restrained as he was now in his speech.

Sonic, on the other hand, was free to speak however he wanted. "And before we talk about _your_ boys," the hedgehog immediately said back, eyes narrowing, spitting the words out like bullets from a gun muzzle, not trying to hide his suspicion about what this fat guy may have done, "_I'd_ like to know what was up with the ones they were handling."

The reaction caught Wong off-guard as he blinked and jerked backward slightly. He seemed genuinely confused – either that or he was more used to himself speaking that way to others, not the other way around. "What?"

"Your men were helping a bunch of child slavers, weren't they?" Sonic continued, trying quite hard not to raise his voice, "or maybe even doing it themselves."

"Child slavers?" The man looked back down at the picture of the kids in cages. "I was wondering what this picture had to do with my men. They're connected?"

The hedgehog almost slapped his own forehead hearing that. "We found them in the same place where they died."

Wong's eyes narrowed. "You killed them?"

"No, no, no," Sonic said rapidly, shaking his head and hands in the process, frustrated at having just realized that he was not communicating this properly because of his emotions. "We…we found the kids only after your men got gunned down by the ones running the place. One of them mentioned your name before he died, which is why we've come here."

Silence followed. Wong looked around, frowning, eyebrows raised and hands clenched into fists on his thighs. "I had no idea what those people were up to," he said, flatly rather than defensively, while gazing back at Sonic, "nor was it my business to ask. The deal was simply to ship them cargo, and in return I get paid." His gaze now turned toward the floor. "But it appears that has fallen apart, and I wasn't even told about it. I was wondering why they hadn't contacted me for a week. Now I know."

"Paid?" Tails spoke up for the first time sounding curious, "by who?"

"The person we were dealing with kept himself anonymous. No names, no faces…at least that's how he planned it." A smile crept onto Wong's face for the first time, even if it was the creepy, sinister, I-have-tricks-up-my-sleeve kind. "But I already knew something like this could happen, and had to make preparations, just in case. I had my men follow the representatives we were dealing with, to spy on them."

Sonic leaned forwards, his gaze softening slightly. "What did you find out?"

"They say they got some info, but I haven't seen it. I'm quite busy, and frankly, I don't think I would have wanted to know anyway at the time. Just in case. The people I made the deal with, I can tell they won't like it if I knew too much about them. If any one of them thought I knew anything about this…"

Tails frowned slightly. "That seems kinda paranoid."

"Paranoia is what has kept me alive in this career for years," Wong simply proclaimed, "and it's the only reason I even have anything for you. I can call one of my men and have him bring it here now to show you."

"You don't have it with you?" the hedgehog asked, confused.

"Of course not. Why would I want to keep something sensitive like that so close to me all the time?"

Sonic was annoyed at how the man couldn't just tell what he found out directly, but he didn't really have a choice here. "Fine, go ahead."

Wong quickly whipped out a cellphone and made a call, saying only a few short sentences in Cantonese before hanging up. "He says he can bring it here in five minutes," he told Sonic, sounding pleased for once, since he was as curious about what he would learn as the duo were.

Sonic figured that if they were going to wait here, might as well not wait in silence. "So only now do you want to know what your guy discovered?"

"Yes."

"You said you think knowing the information could put your life at risk. So why now?"

Wong shrugged. "You're the fastest guy in the world, your friend the second fastest. I figure you would be able to get the guys that got mine killed before anything happens to me."

"Hmm…thanks, I guess," Sonic replied, looking away and shifting in his seat. He tried thinking of what else he could say to pass the time, but his lack of experience in talking to Triad crime bosses made it a bit difficult.

It was therefore Wong's turn to make conversation. The man leaned backwards in his seat casually before asking, "So…how's it like?"

The hedgehog looked forwards to see Wong smiling smugly. "What's what like?"

"Being the hero. Guy that tries to save the world every day. I saw your interview that day, you know."

"Well, if you did, you know what I said already, right? I don't really feel like repeating the same answers."

After a short while, Wong unexpectedly let out a short laugh, which to Sonic's ears felt like a mix between the amused and evil kind. "What?" he asked, sounding a bit sharper than he'd intended, the annoyance getting to him.

"It's funny, because it reminded me of something. A lot of policemen here…they seem to believe the same thing. They want to wipe out all crime, at least all organized crime, in Hong Kong. That's how they start off. Then years later, they begin to realize just how difficult it is, maybe even futile, and some of them just give up. Others just wish they could just come at us like vigilantes without evidence, giving up all their compliance to rules and regulations.

"So you are simply doing the same thing, but on a global scale…the pressure must really be something. You really believe you can stay true to the principles you said on TV forever?"

The comparison and question made Sonic distinctly uncomfortable, which he tried not to show, with limited success. "Pretty sure I will," the hedgehog replied, in defiance not just to Wong's words but to his own doubts inside.

"Your confidence is inspiring," Wong said with a grin, "I just couldn't help but wonder, that's all. We'll see."

* * *

"There's someone else coming to the door," Cheuk reported while looking at the person coming to the office door from the shadows, "Chinese male, five feet six, wearing a cap, pullover and jeans…his hand is holding his pocket."

"Okay, good job. Continue observing. Watch your surroundings."

* * *

The door opened, letting a short, skinny man in a cap and sweater walk in, as well as ending their chat, to Sonic's relief. Without saying a word, the guy took a small object, a USB drive, out of his pocket and handed it over to Wong. After a nod and a grunt, the short man simply walked back out.

Wong stared at the object in his hand, examining it like it was a piece of gold. "Finally…I have a computer at the back. Let's unravel this once and for all."

All three of them got up from the couches, ready to head into Wong's office, but stopped completely when loud sounds came in from outside, interrupting them bluntly. The gunshots and screams caused the mobian duo to gasp, while Wong simply froze. "_Hum ga ling_," the Triad boss cursed, then turned to the two bouncers nearby who were now alert and ready, "_Nei, nei choot hui tai!_" he shouted to one of them, and to the other, "_nei, nei lau dai bou wu ngo!_"

"Wait, wait," Sonic said quickly, heading to the door while Tails followed closely behind, "leave this to us, you stay in this room and lock the door. Don't open except for us or the police!"

"Fine," Wong said angrily and uneasily before the two rushed out, "they're coming for me, Sonic! I know it!"

* * *

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! "Everyone squat down! Now!" the muscular tattooed man shouted while firing his pistol into the ceiling. Everyone instantly complied, cowering in fear on the floor. Soon enough, nobody was still standing up, except for the other armed muscular tattooed men. "Bring them upstairs!" he commanded them. He would have preferred taking them to the dance floor downstairs, but going upstairs was faster. Time was of absolutely critical importance here.

The gunmen quickly forced the guests up the metal stairs at gunpoint, unaware that they had missed one of them. In a dark, hidden alcove in the corner, Rebecca Cheuk was observing the situation while crouching, keeping herself hidden even more than before. "Rebecca! What happened? Are you alright?" Chow asked hurriedly over the phone.

"I'm fine, I managed to hide myself just in time," she whispered, keeping her eyes open on the now vacated room. "There are at least four gunmen, they look like 16K Triad members, rounding up the guests upstairs – I can't take on them now, I need back-"

Fortunately, backup did arrive, not in the form of her colleagues, but the mobian pair of heroes, who zoomed across the room so quickly that she would have missed them if she had blinked.

* * *

"Upstairs, come on!" Sonic shouted to Tails without looking back toward him. The stairs were narrow and full of belongings that had been dropped by the frightened guests, hindering them from going upstairs as fast as they could.

Eventually they emerged from the stairwell to find themselves in another drinking lounge. The guests from downstairs were all up here, whimpering in fear, though a few of them did seem to calm down when they saw the hedgehog and fox approach. Their eyes scanned the floor alertly before they realized something. _Where are the gunmen?_

A swinging door at the opposite end of the stairwell, marked 'Fire Escape', caught his attention. "Tails, over there!" he called out before rushing over, taking only three seconds. But when he reached the door and opened it, it became clear that it wasn't fast enough.

Before they could head downstairs, the gunmen below suddenly threw glass bottles with a burning piece of cloth at the mouth up at them. Their reflexes had them jerk back into the lounge before the bottles smashed against the wall, instantly covering it and the concrete floor with fire.

Thinking and acting quickly, Sonic and Tails headed back to where they had come from, only to hear more bottles smashing, and when they got to the top of the stairs they had used, they were greeted by another set of flames blocking them off.

Instantly the guests were screaming again. Sonic turned around, knowing that he had to get things under control. "Guys, calm down," he said loudly to the crowd in the calmest voice possible, something he'd learned from Alan, "we're gonna get you outta here!"

"I'll get the extinguisher!" Tails said to him before getting to the back of the bar counter to look for it, all while wondering in confusion and frustration, _what the heck's going on?_

* * *

"There was another guy hiding there!" Rebecca said in disbelief as he watched the gunman who had come out of another dark alcove to throw a few Molotov cocktails up the stairs run away from it – in the direction of Wong Heng's office. "Damn it, I have to act now!"

"Rebecca, wait!" Chow said in surprise, but she had already put down her phone and gotten out her Glock pistol.

Scanning the entrance and stairwell to ensure that no more hostiles were there, she got up and headed to the corridor where Wong's office was, but quickly stood against the wall when she heard multiple gunshots coming from there.

Rebecca approached slowly before taking a peak, and saw that the gunmen were already running off towards the rear exit. She ran forwards to follow, but as she passed by the still open office door, she couldn't help but take a quick look inside. Sure enough, Wong Heng and the two bouncers were already dead from multiple well-placed shots, with no apparent misses – these guys were professionals!

Hoping that Sonic and Tails could help the people upstairs, Cheuk ran down to the rear exit, pushing through the swinging door, pistol up and ready. She glanced down the alleyway in both directions and saw the men running towards a white van waiting there. "Stop!" she shouted, "police! Stand still and don't move-"

Without slowing down or flinching even a bit, the gunmen turned around and opened fire, forcing her to dive out of the way behind a steel trash container. Immediately her suspicions were running high. She had never known of any Triad gang members that reacted so quickly with guns before.

When the gunshots ended, all of the shooters had already gotten onboard the van. Its tires screeched loudly against the tarmac as it lurched forward and picked up speed. Behind, Rebecca finally fired several shots of her own, but they were already getting further and further away…

* * *

Tails' sensitive ears had picked up the shooting despite the noise from the panicking guests and the fires. Having put out most of the flames in the fire exit, the fox set the fire extinguisher down and got up to the short window on the wall. It was rather small, certainly not big enough for a human adult to fit through, but it barely allowed him to see what was outside below, where the shots had come from.

Down in the alleyway, Tails saw that the gunmen who had attacked this place firing their weapons at something, or someone, before getting onto a white van. Considering how quickly they had performed earlier, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that they could somehow outrun or outmaneuver the police and disappear into the night. He had to do something.

Fortunately, he had just the right thing to use. The fox had toyed around with his WRID in the last several months, adding a few new features that he'd kept secret from the public, and sometimes it would take a while before he would even tell Sonic or Alan about them. One of them would come in handy right at this instant.

Standing up on the seat against the wall, Tails pushed the window open and quickly aimed the wrist device out towards the van, which was about to leave the alley and turn onto the street. A press of a switch deployed a crosshair on his display, and the vehicle slowed down just long enough for him to push the 'launch' button. Seeing that it had worked made him feel much more relieved. _Excellent_.

"Tails!" Sonic called from the other side of the room, still spraying the stairs with the extinguisher, "what are you doing?"

"I'll explain later, but trust me, it'll help us," Tails replied before picking the fire extinguisher back up, "come on, we need to get back to Wong! How's the fire there?"

"It's almost out!" The hedgehog squeezed the lever as hard as he could, impatient and worried over what may have happened to the boss below. "Come on, come on!"

After what seemed like a full minute, Tails let out a huge sigh of relief. "Okay, clear!" he declared before putting the extinguisher away. The thing was heavy, but at least the fire exit was no longer blocked by the same hazard it was supposed to help people escape from.

"Alright, same here!" Sonic threw his extinguisher to the side, glad that it was finally done but still not at ease yet, "let's go! Remember to hold your breath, there's still tons of smoke!"

"Okay!"

The two made their way down the charred and barely usable stairs to the main floor, heading straight for the office with their hearts racing. But they were too late. The door had been forced open, and all three men inside were laying dead on the ground. Both simply stood there, breathless and wordless.

Sonic stepped unsteadily over to Wong's bullet-riddled corpse. His bloody hands were placed near one of his pockets, their positions suggesting that in his last moments, he had been trying to protect something that could fit in there, like the USB drive that he got right before this attack. The hedgehog checked the pocket, and found, to his displeasure but not his surprise, that there was nothing in there. The information they wanted to get was gone. Immediately it was clear to Sonic what the attackers had planned – to trap the fastest things alive upstairs with fire and then using the chance to silence Wong and take what he had.

Behind him, Tails was handling his WRID attentively, a look of concern on his face. "It's gone," Sonic said weakly, shaking his head, "those bas…guys took it. What are you doing anyway? What did you do upstairs?"

"It's a tracker-launching module I'd installed about a month ago," the fox explained, "I saw that the shooters were getting away in a van outside, so I launched a tracker onto it."

"So we can go after them now?" Sonic sounded hopeful, even excited.

"Well…" Tails rubbed the back of his uncomfortably, "it did stick to the vehicle, I saw it…but it's not showing up on the map yet. There must be a glitch or something, I need a few minutes to fix or reconfigure it." He let out another sigh, one of regret this time. "I'm sorry, Sonic."

Sonic the Hedgehog, who realized that he and his brother had just been outsmarted by a mere bunch of armed thugs and robbed of the clues they were so close to knowing, was unable to describe his emotions. Anger, confusion, frustration, worry…they were all there in one big mixture. He was close to snapping at Tails before pulling himself back sharply, and snapped at himself instead for thinking of doing so. The fox had pulled a smart move Sonic wouldn't even have thought of despite how fast the situation had gone, and this was really just a minor setback in the grand scheme of things. "It's okay, bud," he found himself saying to him silently, "you did good. Just calm down and fix the thing, alright?"

Their eyes met briefly, and through that, each could tell that the other was sincere. Tails nodded. "R-right."

Until then, however, the fact remained that they weren't really able to do anything to go after the perpetrators. Turning away, Sonic went up to and kicked a bottle on the carpeted floor away with a grunt. _Damn it_.

* * *

"I'm with the police. Are you alright?" Rebecca asked the mobian duo, her tone calm and professional, her accent British-influenced. They were standing outside the entrance to The Heart of Asia, which was now barred and surrounded by police officers. Around them, lights were flashing from both reporters' cameras and emergency vehicles.

"Okay, I guess," Sonic replied, not very enthusiastically.

"Yeah," Tails answered the same way.

"Could you tell me what happened in there?"

"Hate to say it, but I guess things…happened faster than I could manage," the hedgehog reluctantly said, "we heard gunshots, and then when we went to go and help those folks, the attackers trapped us upstairs with, uh, Molotov cocktails, is that what they're called? Took us a few minutes to put the fire out, but we did, so we were able to save the people there…not the ones downstairs though."

"The club manager and his bouncers," Rebecca said with a nod. "Could I ask what did you come here for, originally?"

"Uh…" Sonic uncomfortably checked his surroundings. There were quite a few police officers, investigators, firefighters, paramedics, reporters and the like on the scene, but none of them were within hearing range. "Hey, uh, just asking, you reporting everything I say to your bosses or what?"

"That is what I'm supposed to do," she admitted.

"Well, uh, we were just following a lead from something we found in Mazuri a week ago, it brought us here. Then, I dunno, those shooters came to shoot up the place before we could find out anything. Not sure I can tell you more than that, really."

A few more minor questions later, Cheuk, who seemed deep in thought throughout the little Q&A, was ready to wrap it up. "Alright, I have enough for my bosses. Thank you for your co-operation and saving those people," she said, extending a hand.

"No problem. I was just doing what others would have done," Sonic replied as his hand took hers, before Tails did the same.

"Have a good night, both of you," she wished them before turning around and walking off.

"You too."

As she left them, Sonic turned to Tails, an odd look on his face. "Hey, bud, check this out," he told him as he opened up his palm, "she handed me this when we shook hands."

"Huh?" Tails saw that it was a small piece of scrap paper, a message scrawled over it in pen: _Meet me in the alleyway behind your hotel in ten minutes._ "That's weird."

"Looks like she wants to talk to us in private. Maybe she can help?"

The two looked back at Rebecca walking off into the crowd of police officers, speaking on her phone, giving no other hint of wanting to communicate. And yet…"Hopefully."

**Author's Note: As always, thank you for your patience while waiting for each next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 4: Getting Acquainted

**Chapter 4: Getting Acquainted**

The alley behind the hotel Sonic and Tails had booked was dark, wet and smelly – precisely the kind of place people would avoid at night. Which was probably why it made sense for that cop to ask them to meet her here. They'd arrived shortly after leaving The Heart of Asia. Sonic, confident that nobody had seen them coming here, was tapping his foot with his arms crossed, while Tails continued to make the inactive tracker on his WRID work.

A few minutes later, the sound of a car horn caught their attention. They turned to the alley's nearest exit to see a blue Ford Mondeo approaching, before slowing down with its left side before them. The front window rolled down, revealing the familiar face of the female cop earlier. "Get in, quick!" she said quietly but with a hint of urgency to them.

After Sonic took the front passenger seat and Tails the rear, the vehicle sped off. "Thank you for coming," she began, "you were right about that place being too crowded. This way is better. I'm Detective Rebecca Cheuk."

"Nice to meet you again, Miss Cheuk," Sonic said warmly, trying to smile despite the circumstances, "uh, did I pronounce that right?"

"It's close enough," Rebecca replied nonchalantly as she turned a corner, "anyway, I've asked you here because, to be frank, I need your help."

"Anything we can do, ma'am," Tails said from the back, "but what's with the secrecy?"

The detective sighed before she started her explanation. "I'm worried that there may have been an information leak from my department. What happened at that club…something's very wrong with it."

"Hmph. Amen to that," Sonic said, sounding less than pleased about the affair, "but what's the problem exactly?"

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but…my boss believed that someone needed to watch over you while you were in the club to make sure you weren't about to do something…problematic."

She was instantly faced with blank stares, although she kept her eyes on the road. "W…what? Me? Why?"

"When the FBI contacted us a week ago for information on Wong Heng, they had to allow, in exchange, a select few of us in my department to watch the video you recorded, Tails."

The mobians were silent after hearing her answer. The last thing they wanted to be reminded of was the horrible memories of that day, which Sonic knew was rather paradoxical considering he had invoked it just half an hour ago to be able to meet Wong Heng. "I…I see."

They were now on a relatively empty street. "I was in the club when you both entered, and I saw you enter Wong's office. I couldn't get any closer to know what was happening in there, but this is where it gets suspicious. Shortly after a man with a cap and coat entered and exited the room, those gunmen barged into the place."

"Oh yeah, we noticed that too," Sonic quickly said, a lot more interested now. "That part's been bugging me too…but there's even more to it, right?"

"Yes. The gunmen seemed to be from the 16K Triad, Wing Seng's largest rival…but I saw the way they used their weapons and how quick they were. They weren't just gang members - they showed signs of having police or military training. Not to mention Wing Seng and 16K were having poor relations last time we checked. Someone's trying to start a gang war."

"Huh, no wonder," Sonic commented with a frown, "those guys moved plenty fast…coming from me, that's saying a lot. So it's definitely got something to do with the guy in the cap."

"That brings me to why I'm here. Either that man must have signaled for the others to come in, or they had somehow known what he was there for, or knew who he was, and someone tipped them off. Only a few of us even knew that this operation was going on. And there's one final thing."

Sonic and Tails just looked at her expectantly, hungry for the information she was giving.

"The Triad who told you Wong's name before he died, in Mazuri…he was one of ours. Undercover. Again, only known to a few people. I'm starting to suspect that the whole group may have been killed just to get to him."

Silence again. Like food, too much surprising news taken in at once tended to overwhelm the duo. "Well, damn."

"So you see where I'm going with this?" she continued, now letting herself sound more troubled.

Sonic nodded, acknowledging, once again, the seriousness of the situation. "That's why you want to talk to us off the record."

"Indeed. I've told my boss I'm headed home, but…" Rebecca slowed her car down to a stop to the side of the road. The area they were in was isolated, with grass and streetlights in every direction, and the lit-up Hong Kong skyline in one of them, but not much else. "…not that soon. Now we can talk more without any fear of eavesdropping or me needing to report to anyone…at least not yet."

"So what'd you like to know?"

"Same question as before, really. What went on in that room before it happened? What did Wong say?"

As it turned out, the lack of prying eyes and ears made it a lot easier for Sonic to speak. "He said that he had no idea what those guys there in that base where up to, and that his men were supposed to just ship cargo on behalf of some anonymous person, though he didn't say what cargo, exactly. He also had someone find out who the person that made the deal with him was, and the guy in the cap, he'd just given us the USB drive with the info about it just seconds before the shooting started."

"So Wong didn't know who it was?"

Sonic just shrugged. "Apparently. He didn't want to know before that because he thought it would be dangerous…guess he was right."

"And the USB drive?"

"That…they took it before we did," he replied glumly while scowling again. "I can't believe we didn't just take the damn thing before we left the room. We thought we'd be able to just mop those guys up and that everything would be back to normal right away."

"You didn't know what they were going to do," Rebecca replied, trying to be assuring, "nobody did. Although it doesn't matter anymore. All I know now is that they got away on a white van. I've reported it in with its license plate, but there has been no sighting of it since, maybe the plates were fake and they'd ditched them. They just…vanished. Great." Oh well, it was worth a try.

A quick, high-pitched 'beep' sound then came from the back seat without warning, almost causing the two in front to jump. "I got it!" Tails said loudly, looking at his WRID with excitement in his eyes and voice, "the beacon's working now!"

"What is it?" Rebecca asked, as curious as she was hopeful, knowing what the genius fox was capable of.

"I launched a tracker onto their van before they escaped, 'cause of the shooting I heard from upstairs. Took me a while to get it working, unfortunately…" His smile disappeared as his disappointment appeared, but that was reversed very quickly, "But better late than never. Quick, you know where this is? Seems quite near." The fox took the device off and handed it over to a stunned Rebecca.

"Uh…" For a moment the detective was bewildered as she stared at the map display on the small screen, but quickly realized what, or rather where, she was shown. The red dot was blinking next to a body of water, Victoria Harbour, with the blue dot representing the WRID's own location just a few blocks away. "Yes, that's not too far away from here," she said with renewed vigor as she shifted the car into Drive again, "thank you, you've been very helpful. You mind if I keep this in front of me for now?"

"Sure, no problem. Would have been more so if it had worked from the very beginning, though."

"Hey, come on, bud, you did something that I never would even have thought of doing," Sonic replied, actually smiling again. "Don't miss the forest for the trees, or something like that, ya know. You did good."

With that, Tails smiled back too. "Thanks."

"So you're both riding with me? Thought you'd want to get there before I do," Rebecca pointed out.

"Well, normally we would, yeah," Sonic replied as he scratched his head, "but this city's kinda hard to navigate, to be honest, and if both of us just rushed in, they might see us coming. Best to find a place to observe them quietly. It's still not moving, right?"

"Correct, still in the same place," she answered after giving a brief glance at the WRID's screen, "should be there in three minutes if traffic's good." There was a pause before she continued more quietly, "by the way, one more thing."

Sonic sat up in his seat. "Hmm? What's that?"

"I know the two of you were in Mazuri, and what happened to those children…it was horrible. I'm sorry for what you experienced there. I know you did your best to help them out, and I promise to do the same for you."

Immediately the hedgehog looked away, glancing up at the sky covered in stars and by streetlights, his hands fidgeting. "Hmm…well, it's appreciated, but…you don't have to," he replied, almost in a whisper.

"Regardless, you have my word that I'll watch your back the whole time," Detective Rebecca Cheuk Mun-yan said confidently, "even if there are people out there who want to stab it."

* * *

They decided to stop a ways before they actually reached the marked location, as it became clear that the area was a small, isolated dock next to a flat expanse of concrete with few objects to really serve as cover for any eavesdroppers. Their best choice, as far as they could see, was a big, thick tree up a small hill next to the road.

Not taking any chances, Rebecca parked at least fifty meters away from the tree, and had already turned off her lights long before that. The three then jumped out, quietly stepped over to their chosen vantage point, and looked.

The white van from the nightclub was indeed there, with its occupants outside standing next to it, a few of them smoking, other looking around. Rebecca noticed, without surprise, that the license plate was no longer the same as it was back at The Heart of Asia, and they'd even managed to cover up the few bullet holes she'd put on the vehicle's rear door with tape, placed to look like some swirly artistic pattern so that it didn't look out of place. They appeared to be waiting for something or someone. "Don't see anyone else around," Sonic stated as he rubbed his palms together, looking and sounding prepared to strike, "come on, Tails, let's hit 'em before they even-"

"Wait," Rebecca cut him off, with a tone suggesting that he lower his volume, while pointing to another set of approaching vehicle headlights on the opposite side. The supposed Triads were now also keeping their eyes on the same thing. "Let's see who they're dealing with before we make our next move."

Sonic simply huffed reluctantly as the other vehicle came closer and into a better view. It was a large, silver Lexus sedan, license plate KR 8800, and the sight of it noticeably took Rebecca back, blinking. "What is it?" he asked her curiously, putting his impatience aside.

"That car…it seems familiar," she answered, sounding uncomfortable now, though she still tried reasonably hard to stay calm.

Then the passenger in the car's rear seat, a man in a business suit, got out, and it only got worse. "Who is that guy?" Sonic asked a now wide-eyed Rebecca.

"Do you…have binoculars?" she said in return, not really sounding like the level-headed detective she was just a minute earlier.

"Here," Tails replied, eagerly handing over the WRID again after setting it to its camera on maximum zoom. She took the device quickly, put it up to her eyes and watched the men before them intently as they approached the person they'd been waiting for. After a few seconds of observation, she lowered the tool, now looking even more stunned.

"_Gin gwai_," the detective muttered almost inaudibly, "that's Yeung Chiu-wah."

"Huh, really?" Tails also seemed rather surprised by the answer.

Sonic, on the other hand, expressed only confusion. "Uh, you guys feel me in here, please?"

"Yeung is the CEO of Fenglong Industries, a local energy conglomerate," she answered after steadying herself somewhat, "one of the largest in China."

"I've heard his name before while working with GUN," Tails explained, "they basically said that Fenglong has been doing something similar to what I've did, that is, small fusion reactors roughly based on the Chaos Emeralds, and that they're pretty much GUN's main rival in this area."

"But why would one of the richest men in Hong Kong meet up with the Triads like this?" Rebecca wondered aloud. Using the WRID again, she noticed that Yeung had produced a laptop, letting the Triads insert a USB drive into it, the one Sonic and Tails had mentioned. The angle of the laptop's placement was good enough for her to take a peek at its screen, and sure enough, it looked like the drive contained photos of Yeung meeting up with the same men before him now, taken secretly from faraway positions, and likely other information as well. "Looks like Yeung really does have some dirt on him," she remarked, now sounding less surprised and more vindicated, apparently. "You don't mind if I take some pictures, do you?"

"For something like this? Go right ahead," Tails said with a nod, and Rebecca started snapping away.

"You sound you've suspected that guy for a while," Sonic pointed out.

"Not just me. Yeung has been hit with accusations of dealing with the mob from local media in recent years, though they've never been able to prove anything. But now, look."

The interactions between Yeung and the Triads got more interesting as the former closed the laptop, but one of the latter was still holding onto the USB drive, saying something that made the CEO frown. "If only I could hear what they were saying," she said with a sigh.

"No problem," the fox immediately replied, taking the WRID back and turned on some other function on it before handing it back. "Now aim it directly at where they're speaking."

Rebecca couldn't help but smile a bit. "Just full of surprises, aren't you? The good kind."

"Don't worry, I say that to Tails all the time," Sonic said, grinning as well, for the first time in a long while, as Tails simply stood there looking sheepish.

Back to business, the detective followed the instruction she was given and aimed the WRID right between Yeung and the Triad member he was conversing with. Instantly their voices were playing on the device. Rebecca was startled at first, afraid that the noise would give them away, but quickly realized it wasn't much louder than how they themselves have been speaking – Tails had lowered the volume properly to make sure of that.

"So what are they saying?" Sonic asked curiously.

Rebecca began translating as she listened to the rapidly spoken Cantonese. "The Triad says that they need the USB as 'insurance' because of their 'line of work'. Yeung is protesting, saying it's not what they agreed to."

After a few seconds of silent consideration, the older man nodded reluctantly. "Fine."

"We'll be back to the hideout until the next time you need us," the Triad said, "though I hope we get a better place soon. I'm tired of that pig sty."

"Oh, don't complain so much," Yeung snapped at him, "you guys are supposed to be professionals, right? Regardless, you have done well today. Keep it up and you'll get what I promised."

The other man crossed his arms. "Very well," he replied, sounding more cynical than flattered.

Yeung checked his watch. The time, as well the amount of it that had passed, caused him to frown. "We should both go home now. We've been out here too long."

"I agree," the Triad said before turning and walking back to the van, "although, Mr. Yeung…"

"What?"

He gave the old man an odd stare, one filled with caution, and had a similar tone when he continued speaking. "Be careful when you get home."

Yeung stared back, apparently confused at first, but it lasted briefly before nodding. "Of course." And with that, he turned and got back into his own car, closing the door.

Sonic, Tails and Rebecca wasted no time getting down the hill back to the Ford as the other vehicles began to drive off in different directions. "Alright, we'll follow the van first," the detective told them as she seated herself, "Yeung's penthouse apartment's location is hardly secret. But with these men, we can't take the chance. We may have the tracking beacon, but maybe they'll park the van somewhere far from where they're actually hiding and proceed on foot, like most people here do. We'll go after them."

"Why don't Tails and I just go after them ourselves?" Sonic asked. Meanwhile, the car's engine roared to life.

"Well, you're free to try, but good luck trying not to let anyone see you, even if you use rooftops. If you're spotted, people will make a big fuss out of it. Those gunmen will know you're onto them and likely run someplace else and not their hideout, which is what we're looking for. The only way you can blend in is staying in my car."

Sonic and Tails tried to think of a good counterargument, but realized that Rebecca's reasoning made sense. Hong Kong had an incredibly high population density, with most people living in apartments, giving them elevated views of the shorter buildings and streets that were still heavily crowded at this hour. It would take only just a few excited tenants or passers-by to shout out Sonic's name, and the resulting attention would give them away to the mystery men they wanted to pursue. "Guess you're right," the hedgehog admitted reluctantly, "let's get going."

"By the way, I'd suggest not talking to me while I drive," she told them, hoping it didn't sound rude, "following a vehicle like this demands my full attention. Conversation will distract me. Hope you understand."

Sonic let out a small sigh. So not only did he have to stay in a slow car, he couldn't make conversation while doing so either. "Sure, no problem."

It was true. Following the van by driving was also a challenge, as Rebecca had to make sure to be neither too close nor too far away, which wasn't easy with the traffic being what it was right now. Nevertheless, she was confident that she could manage, as it wasn't the first time she'd done this.

After a few minutes of silent driving, she found herself entering Ma Tau Wai, one of the older areas in Kowloon. There had been buildings on both sides of the car for nearly the entire trip, but the ones around them now were clearly more rustic looking, with decaying plaster on the brick walls, unlike all the modern steel and glass a few streets ago.

Next to one such building, the white van finally came to a stop. The men jumped out, some of them carrying large bags, which undoubtedly contained the firearms they had used earlier.

It became clear, however, that they hadn't parked near where they actually stayed, as the men began squeezing through a crowded, brightly-lit night market area. Rebecca, who had stopped by the roadside, unbuckled her seatbelt. "Alright, leave this to me," he told the mobian pair, "this place is packed - you'll never be able to make through it without everyone going crazy. I'll follow them to their hideout, you stay in here and let nobody see you, okay?"

"Got it," Sonic replied promptly while Tails nodded, both hiding their reluctance.

"I'll be back soon." After lowering one of her windows slightly for ventilation, Rebecca shut the engine off once more and got out, approaching the night market at a brisk pace.

The men were at least twenty feet ahead, and she had to shove her way through several times in order to keep them in her line of sight, ignoring the angry remarks hurled at her. She apologized as much as she could on the way, but on an assignment like this, manners were of secondary importance.

Eventually her targets entered one of the rundown apartment buildings in the area, going up the stairs. Rebecca started running – she had to close the distance between them and herself now. The building was small, and being too far away meant she could easily lose them if they turned just one corner.

Inside, Rebecca made her up the decrepit stairwell, whose walls were mostly covered in graffiti, all the way up to the third floor. She wasn't worried about making noise – she knew better than to wear heels while on duty. At various points she found herself holding her nose due to the foul stench of trash in the corridors. No wonder the Triad complained about his accommodation earlier.

Finally, still in the stairwell, she saw the men enter one of the flats, though she had to shirk away briefly as the last one in the group checked his surroundings. It helped that the light above her happened to be broken. After hearing the door close, she took a good look at the number of the flat before going back down. What she got was enough – no need to risk going nearer and be discovered if one of them suddenly came back out to smoke or check something.

A few minutes of squeezing again later she returned to her car, which was luckily not surrounded by any big crowds, meaning Sonic and Tails had managed to keep themselves hidden. "Got their location," she said the moment she got back into her seat, "room 313, the left-most building on the block directly in front."

"Gotcha," Sonic replied as he let out a yawn. He couldn't help it. "If we know where they are already, why not just let us loose?"

"The market runs around this entire area. No matter how you approach that building, they'll be tipped off by the public reaction to your presence and take off with the pen drive and maybe their other stuff, while also finding some corner or store to hide in, which are everywhere here. They've chosen a pretty clever spot, actually, even if it's dirty as hell. We want both the men and whatever they're hiding."

The hedgehog frowned. "Okay…then why not just call your buddies to get in there?"

She sighed regretfully. "I'd like to…but until the mole or source of the leak in my department is discovered, it's too risky. They could get a heads-up call and then scram."

Sonic simply looked at Tails, blankly, and got the same reaction back. While Rebecca's worries were understandable, they now had to wonder if she was letting them take control of her. "Isn't there anyone in the police that you can trust? You know, your partner or something?"

The detective closed her eyes and placed a palm on her face. Somehow, she seemed bothered by the question.

"Hey, uh, what's wrong?" Tails asked quietly.

When she opened her eyes again, they were no longer the same focused, determined ones that belonged to a professional cop, now filled merely with uncertainty and lack of confidence instead. "I did," she replied, voice barely above a whisper. "He was the one who told you Wong's name in Mazuri. His name was Jason Mak."

No response. Not vocally, anyway. Sonic and Tails were blinking in surprise.

She shook her head. "I didn't want to tell you earlier, but…"

"Hey, hey, it's alright," Sonic quickly said, suddenly feeling bad about his ideas just now, worried that he may have been pushy or overeager. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she replied, steadying herself, "we weren't romantically involved or anything…but on the job, he was the one I always turned to, for years. When he was chosen to be the mole, I was constantly worried about what could happen. And with the way he died…I just need to solve this right, if you know what I mean," she continued, looking softly back at Sonic, "I can't afford any mistakes."

"I…I get it," Sonic replied with a nod, "it's alright. In that case though, what do we do?"

"You'll have to wait until later, until the market's cleared," Rebecca answered, slowly sounding more business-like again.

"When'll that happen?"

"Around here? I'd say 4 A.M., just to be safe."

That elicited a whistle from the hedgehog. "Seriously? Man…guess we should go back to the hotel or something."

She shook her head as he turned her keys again. "No. The police are watching it right now, hoping to talk to you more again, perhaps even bring you back to the station for questioning. I understand why they're doing that, but the fact is it's inconvenient for you if you want to sneak out late at night. And the mole will likely use it to his advantage too."

Sonic grunted in annoyance. "Great…then where do we go?"

A brief pause later, Rebecca put on her seatbelt and shifted into Reverse. Then, for the first time since they met, she smiled, even if it was a small one. "My place."

* * *

Rebecca's apartment, fortunately, was not the ancient ruins that the mystery men stayed in, being a relatively clean, affluent place with cleaners and security guards. Entering the adjacent parking lot building, she parked at her designated place and turned off the engine, hopefully for the last time tonight, but didn't get out yet. "Okay, I live on the twentieth floor. We'll just take the elevator, simple enough, except…"

"What is it this time?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know, my neighbours…they could be up and about right now, maybe chatting with my mum. I can trust her to keep secrets, but my neighbours, not so much."

Sonic sighed. "The stay-out-of-sight thing again, huh? Any ideas?"

She sat motionlessly to think about it, and soon had one. "Well, there is one way…not sure if you'll like it. But just bear with me."

Minutes later, the elevator doors on the building's twentieth floor opened up, and Rebecca stepped out. Her apartment was just down the corridor, and just as she had predicted, her elderly neighbours were indeed standing around in front of their doors doing small talk, when they noticed her.

"Hey, _ah Yan_!" one of them, Mrs. Chan, called out happily, "you came back so late today?"

"Hi, Auntie Chan," Rebecca said, showing a friendly smile, "yeah, just had to, uh, shop a bit."

"Oh, you finally decided to buy those toys too?" another one, Mr. Lau, asked, sounding pleasantly surprised. "They seem so popular right now!"

Rebecca glanced down at the Sonic and Tails 'plushies' that were on her shoulders somewhat guiltily. "Yeah. Not for myself though, it's for my cousin who lives in Canada. I think he'll like them."

"Wow, you're so nice!" Mrs. Chan's grin grew wider. "You even bought the full-size versions, as big as the real Sonic and Tails!"

It took a lot of effort not to blush at that one. "Well, there was a discount."

"Hey, do you need me to open the door for you?"

"Thank you, but it's not needed," Rebecca replied as she reached into her pockets for her keys after reaching her door, hoping that the two mobians could remain motionless just a bit longer.

"Hey, so how is work these days?" Mrs. Chan asked as she got up beside her.

"It's okay, a bit stressful…" She gently turned the handle after unlocking it. "I guess that's why I bought these toys. Maybe I'll play with them a bit before mailing them."

"Stress? No worries, remember to come over to my food stall if you need anything," Mr. Lau offered.

"Thank you, Uncle Lau. See you tomorrow. Good night."

"Hey, before you go in, could I take a look at them?" Mrs. Chan asked eagerly.

"I'm quite tired now, Auntie Chan. Tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh, no problem. Good night!"

_Whew_. Rebecca was glad to have gotten through that, though there was one more person she had to deal with, one she couldn't avoid no matter what.

"_Ah Yan_!" Mrs. Cheuk came out from the kitchen, dressed in an apron and holding a ladle. The room was filled with the smell of stew. "Finally you come back! I was worried about you."

"Hi, mum," she said, genuinely pleased to see her mother again after the day she'd had, "sorry I came home late."

"You went shopping?" she said, pointing at the apparent stuffed toys on her shoulders, "you had time for that after work?"

She laid Sonic and Tails down on the couch carefully one by one, which wasn't as easy as it looked since they weighed a lot more than their stuffed counterparts. "Ma, I need to tell you something," she said, lowering her voice, "it's very important."

"What is it? You're talking very seriously suddenly."

"Ma, you need to keep your voice down and promise you won't shout, okay?"

Mrs. Cheuk looked very puzzled as the crooked lines on her forehead seemed to become even more so. "Okay. Why?"

Rebecca finally switched to English and faced the mobian duo. "Okay, guys, you can drop out of it."

Sonic and Tails ended their charade by taking in deep breaths, caused both by reflex and relief. "Whew, man," the hedgehog said facing Rebecca, "hope you didn't say anything embarrassing about us back there."

"I was more worried about that happening to myself, honestly," she replied before turning to her now speechless mother and continued in her native tongue, "ma, I've brought Sonic and Tails along tonight. I hope you don't mind."

As if on cue, the two went up to the elderly lady to offer a hand shake. "Good evening, Mrs. Cheuk," Sonic greeted, smiling.

As was Tails. "Hi, there," the fox said with a wave, tails twirling.

Rebecca's mom stood there with her mouth open for a solid ten seconds before breaking out into a big smile. "Oh! Wow! It's nice to meet you!" she said in Cantonese, and not quietly, taking Sonic's hand.

"Ma, please!" Rebecca quickly replied while looking at the door, worried that Mr. Lau and Mrs. Chan may have overheard.

"Ah, sorry." Mrs. Cheuk proceeded to do what most human beings did when they met Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prower: hug them tightly. Here, she knelt down and did it to both of them at the same time, made possible by her wide frame.

After she was done, she got back up and faced her daughter. "Hey, _ah Yan_, it's nice that they came, but why are they here, actually? How come you don't want to tell the others?"

"It's a bit complicated," Rebecca answered, sounding a bit uneasy again. "I'll explain in the room, come with me." Switching languages, she said while walking away with her mom without facing the two , "hey, just take a seat for a while. It'll only be a moment."

"Sure!" After the door closed, Sonic and Tails jumped back onto the couch, sinking into the fine leather, and for once just relaxed.

Or at least, they tried to. They found themselves taking a good look around the apartment, which had a richly colored wooden floor covered with soft mats. The furniture were all mostly high-end, and the only thing they didn't recognize was the small dark red box near the TV, placed on an old-looking cupboard. It appeared to contain the jade figure of some Chinese deity. Otherwise, the place exuded modernity and freshness, which fit Rebecca well.

Thinking about the detective caused Sonic to face the young fox. "Hey, Tails, uh…what do ya make of Rebecca so far?"

Tails appeared mildly surprised at the question. "What do you mean?"

"I guess, well, she takes her job real seriously, I can understand that, but do you feel she, like, kinda hamstrings us here and there sometimes?"

The fox took a moment to consider Sonic's claim. "Well, maybe…but I can't blame her. What happened in that nightclub was a bit, well, scary. The timing was really too exact, and those guys knew exactly what to do to cut us off. I'd be cautious too."

Sonic leaned back all the way, glancing at the ceiling in the process. "Good point. I just wish I could just get going, like, right now. We know where they are already, and you know how I am. I can't just wait around. My feet are itching, bud, not just to run, to kick some butt too."

"I'm just as eager as you are, believe me," Tails replied, sitting closer to him, "but looking at that area just now, I have to agree, even if I fly us both in there, we'll still be really visible due to all those lights, and those guys are probably being vigilant too. If they see us, they could scatter, and we might catch only one or two of them at best. We should wait until the night market closes, at least, to approach this carefully."

The hedgehog didn't know what to think, what to say in response. One half was screaming to just rush out there and zoom in on that little cubbyhole, all those witnesses be damned. The other urged him to listen to Tails' advice and Rebecca's observations. And when he thought about it, things had always worked out better when he worked together with Tails to plan them out, whether on Mobius, Adabat. And when they didn't, the result was Mazuri.

That memory caused Sonic to shudder, as if from coldness. He did not want another Mazuri to happen again. Could not. _No way_. If only they'd remembered those guards outside that tunnel…

In the end, it was clear to him which side of him won the argument. "Okay, we'll take it carefully, just like you said," Sonic replied quietly, looking at Tails with eyes of trust. The same kind Tails normally gave him when the fox had his own doubts. "We're gonna plan this properly, Tails. Mazuri ain't gonna happen again."

Even though mentioning Mazuri usually made him cringe, Tails was able to smile this time. "Yeah. That's what I think too."

The door on the other side of the room opened up, and their two hosts came back out. "Alright, my mum understands now. You two can stay for the night," she told them, "and the best part is, she invites you to try out her stew."

"Oh?" Sonic got off the couch, with Tails following suit. "That's nice. Both of those, I mean. Thanks."

What followed for the next fifteen minutes was the four of them sitting at the dinner table, trying out the stew, while Sonic and Tails answered a few questions from Mrs. Cheuk, some a bit embarrassing, such as whether they'd dated any of their fangirls. Rebecca acted as translator, and couldn't help but laugh occasionally.

Despite that, Sonic was surprised to find that he did genuinely enjoy the time off for once, without feeling like he had to be somewhere else right now. They got to learn a few things about Mrs. Cheuk as well, such as how she used to be a semi-trailer driver, which explained her burly arms. When Tails mentioned having leg pains again, she recommended a local acupuncturist. Warming up to her was easy overall.

After they were done, Mrs. Cheuk bid them goodnight, and went to sleep first. Then it was back to business again. "Okay, so you know what to do?" Rebecca asked them right after her mother went into her bedroom.

Sonic shrugged. "I guess so. We wait until the right time, right?"

"More or less."

"Hey, uh, could I use your computer?" Tails asked. "Just thought I'd check a few things that could help." Although his WRID was useful, the fox still preferred using an actual computer to check certain things online.

"Oh, sure." Rebecca went into her own room and returned with a Lenovo laptop, which she then logged in using the guest account. "Go right ahead."

"Thanks," Tails said as he put the device on his lap.

"No, thank you," she said back to them, "for helping me out on this. I don't know who else I could have turned to. Good luck."

"Likewise," Sonic told her. "So, you're sleeping now?"

"Yeah. Long day ahead," she answered before heading back to her bedroom again. "Night."

"G'night."

Once they were alone in the living room, Sonic got up next to Tails, looking at the computer screen together. "So whatcha checking out?"

"Maps, mostly. Just need to check some locations."

It took a moment for Sonic to notice the plural. "Locations? Thought we were hitting just that one apartment."

"Well, I thought of something, that maybe we should be hitting two instead." He then zoomed in on a marked point on the 3D map, which didn't look like the place Sonic had just mentioned.

"What's that fancy looking building?"

Tails smiled. "Yeung Chiu-wah's penthouse apartment."

Sonic stared at his young friend. "You're gonna break in there?" he asked in hushed but still surprised tones.

"Hey, don't look at me like my face melted off or something," the fox replied, chuckling slightly. "But, seriously? Yeah. Because I figured this is really all about him, isn't it? If he has a connection to the Triads, or even Robotnik, there should be something in there, on his computer, maybe."

"But…isn't that, like, illegal?"

"Well, that's why I didn't tell Rebecca," Tails admitted, but continued, "that said, though, I might not necessarily take anything out from there, just see where it leads me to. I need to check if Fenglong has made any particular shipments to and from Mazuri in the last several months. If I defeat the security systems properly, there'll be no proof that I even entered there. And if you can get evidence from those gunmen, Rebecca might be able to launch an investigation against Yeung, and I can tell her that she should use a warrant to search Yeung's apartment, because there _might_ just be something there that they should see…" He winked.

Sonic still seemed skeptical. "I guess the idea sounds good when you put it that way…that's a lot of 'if's though."

"I should be fine. I got experience with Robotnik's bases back on Mobius." Then his smile disappeared. "Although…I admit that I hope this doesn't become a habit."

"Hopefully. Security companies and rich guys around the world will freak out," Sonic commented, chuckling, until he thought of something that made him stop. "Hey, actually…since we're here, why don't we look up something else too?"

"What do you want to check?" Tails asked curiously.

"Yeung himself. Like, is there anything in his history that could be a motive or something that could make him likely to work with the Triads or Robotnik. The reason I wanna know is, well…I don't want the same thing with Guerrez to happen all over again."

"I understand. Alright." Tails began typing in the approximate spelling of Yeung's name since he hadn't actually seen it written before, and fortunately was close enough that he eventually was led to the result he wanted. "Okay, let's see here. Born in a small village called Chunnan in southern China, moved to Hong Kong at age 10. Graduated from business school and eventually took over Fenglong Industries, left to him by his father after he died. The company itself, which is active in energy production and military technology development, has seen its stocks fall slowly but steadily ever since I started working for GUN, in fact it lost like $500 million over the past year, but Yeung has proclaimed to be coming close to what I did.

"As for connections to Mazuri, they've wanted to set up shop there for some time, but have been hampered by the civil war that's been going on there in the past four years. He's said that they will not give up, though, that it 'represents a significant investment opportunity.' Whatever that means."

Sonic crossed his arms as he considered the information. "Let's see here…company performance starts declining right after you start working for their main rival, working in the same type of industries that Robotnik would be interested in, apparently innocuous comment on war-torn country…" He tapped his fingers contemplatively. "Yeah, I got a bad feeling about this already. You should go check him out. Just be careful, though. We're not the ones that are supposed to break the law here."

"You feel it too, huh? Anyway, if I'm breaking in there, I need to download some stuff first, mainly hacking software. I don't exactly hack into people's computers every day, you see."

"Got it. Let's hope the next time you do that is on Robotnik's systems." As Tails searched for what he required, Sonic got up and looked out of the nearby window, at the illuminated skyline of this city of secrets, under the illuminating moon and stars. _I don't know what you're up to, Yeung_, the hedgehog thought with a determined gaze and rolled up fist, _but we'll find out sooner or later_.


	6. Chapter 5: Infiltration

**Author's Note: Happy New Year, everyone. My assignments are gonna pile up in January, so updates may slow down (more than they already have). Enjoy.**

**Chapter 5: Infiltration**

"So you guys ready?" Rebecca asked the duo, having unexpectedly gotten up from bed a few minutes earlier.

"Yeah, like, since a few hours ago, yeah," Sonic replied, sounding more energetic than he had been in the past week. Though Tails didn't say it out loud, it made him feel a lot better hearing the hedgehog express such liveliness. "Thought you went to sleep?"

"Yeah…I didn't expect to get up so fast," she said as she sat down on the couch and dusted her pajamas. "I'm not sure why…maybe I'm just worried."

"About what?" Sonic asked, before quickly adding, "uh, I mean, besides the obvious."

"The leak from my department," she answered, eyes unfocused and glancing everywhere around her living room, "it's just…if there really was leak, or worse, a mole, I have no idea who it could be."

Perhaps it was her tone, or the way she looked so concerned and bewildered, but whatever it was, Sonic found himself plopping down beside her. "I dunno…you could try and guess, you know, start with some guy, maybe work your way from there, see what you can dig up. Just thinking out loud."

"I know," Rebecca said with a nod, "though I've never been that close to them. My current colleagues, I mean. The ones I knew that were there from my first day are no longer with the police. Jason was the only one left, and he, well, you know."

"Then, what about your boss?"

"He's…fine, I suppose. I probably know him second-best after Jason, though that doesn't mean much. That reminds me, other than reporting, I haven't said much to him much after what happened at the club…or others, for that matter."

Sonic shrugged. "Well, you have your reasons for that."

"I know…still, it seems a bit sad of me," Rebecca said with a small, guilty smile. Then, slowly, she got up. "Alright, don't let me keep you. The markets should be clearing about now. Go on ahead, you can use my balcony if you want."

Before Sonic and Tails could reply, Rebecca's phone unexpectedly ringed. Startled, she looked at the screen. "What the-that's my boss," she said, hanging her mouth open.

"Huh…he normally call you this late?" Sonic asked with a raised brow.

"Never before," she answered. "Damn it…you know, this might sound a bit crazy, but try and see if you can find something related to him when you pay those hitmen a visit. His name is Chow Tak-yin, here," she continued as she wrote the name down on a scrap of paper on the coffee table, in both English and Chinese, before handing it to them. "Just wanting to be sure."

"Sure," Tails said with a nod as he fit the note into one of his tail pockets, wondering if it was more likely for such information, if it existed, to be on Yeung's computer or the USB drive. All the more reason for them to hit two places at once.

"Appreciated. OK, I better take this, I'll tell you what he says to me later." Gesturing to the surprised duo to stay silent, she answered. "_Wai_?"

"Rebecca," Chow's scratchy voice came on, sounding rather different, softer, from how he did when he was on duty, "sorry I'm calling you so late…I must have disturbed you."

"Oh, no, actually…I found it a bit hard to sleep too." As she replied, her finger pointed at her balcony while her eyes told them to move out immediately.

Having no more reason to stay put, Sonic and Tails walked outside. After giving one last look back at Rebecca, the fox flew into the air and picked the hedgehog up with him, vanishing from view.

"Oh, that's good," he said. "Look, uh, you probably are going to ask why I'm calling you now…it's just that, what happened in the Heart of Asia today, I was worried something had happened to you after you hanged up."

"I'm fine," Rebecca replied earnestly, "it's my fault too for not assuring you properly, or the others. I made it back home safely."

She then heard what sounded like a sigh of relief on the other end. "Oh, thank god."

"Are you normally so dramatic?" she couldn't help but ask in response.

"Ah, sorry. It's just that the gunmen today acted so quickly, came without warning…I was worried about what they could have done. Especially after what happened to Jason, you know? I really didn't want to lose another subordinate."

"So that's why," she replied, understanding. "You're alright yourself, right?"

There was a short pause before he answered. "Yes…if you're okay, then I'm okay too."

* * *

A few minutes of silent flight later, Sonic and Tails finally came to the spot where they had to part, on top of some other old, rustic building. It was the furthest that they could go together before needing to head off to their own objective locations. Fortunately both the hitmen's hideout and Yeung's penthouse apartment were on the Kowloon side, so Tails didn't have to cross the water. "Alright, looks like this is where I get off," Sonic said as his feet touched the crumbling concrete ground, before looking back at the fox, "thanks for the ride, bud. You ready?"

"No problem. And I'm definitely prepared," Tails replied, still hovering in the air. "Remember, though, I'll be maintaining radio silence until I'm out, hopefully in an hour. Wait till I contact you, okay? See you then right here?"

"Sure! Good luck!"

"You too!"

After a wave towards each other, the two finally went in separate directions, with Sonic leaping over various rooftops while Tails hovered away. Both hid themselves behind obstacles such as water towers or billboards whenever they could while staying away from light sources to avoid being seen by any prying eyes that could be present.

Sonic needed only a few minutes to reach the same market area as before in Ma Tau Wai, which, to his relief, was finally fully vacated, possibly earlier than Rebecca had suggested - all of the umbrellas and tents were folded away, and aside from a few streetlamps, the street was blanketed in blackness. Even his fur's distinctive shade of blue would have a hard time being visible to those far away.

Satisfied with the concealment he had, the hedgehog dropped down from the four-floor building onto the tarmac, landing surprisingly quietly, and entered the cramped, decrepit stairwell, ready to pay those party-crashers a visit. _Just hope I don't bump into someone along the way_.

What he didn't know was that even if he didn't, it would no longer make a difference.

* * *

Breaking into a luxurious penthouse apartment and then exit without leaving a trace wasn't exactly something Tails had done before, so he had rely on his past experience with Robotnik's bases, his tools, his knowledge about home security and his own common sense in order to plan this op out properly. At the very least, he thought, this was not going to end up like what happened in the warehouse in Burbank a year ago - he was now much more prepared than that.

The first necessary step was observation. Fortunately for him, Yeung's apartment was not the tallest building in the area – the other nearby ones were of equal or greater height, and it was a simple matter of setting down on one roof, keeping watch on the side of the penthouse that was visible to him, before taking off and landing on another, where he had to be careful not to fly in front of various light sources in the background that would reveal his silhouette. The vantage points weren't all equidistant from or directly in line with the penthouse, of course, but with his binoculars Tails knew how to compensate.

After rounding the penthouse, Tails dropped back onto the first rooftop he'd stepped on, now knowing more about his target location, including details such as the possible number of rooms, where the office was, where Yeung slept and the number of security guards on active patrol.

Next he had to find a way to get inside without being detected. This was somewhat trickier. All of the windows were fully shut, and any attempt to breach them from the outside would likely raise an alarm. Since he couldn't leave any trace of ever being here, it meant that he couldn't use the cut-a-circular-hole trick like in movies.

If not the windows, maybe the door? The penthouse contained a sizable garden through which entry could be possible. He was worried, though, about the entrance there being watched by cameras, which were too small or hidden away to be seen clearly from here in the darkness.

There was one other option, a trick he'd actually used before: air ducts. Of course, this depended on how often Yeung decided to clean them. If they were full of dust and muck, he may as well plant a giant neon sign flashing _I was here_ once he got in. The last time around that didn't matter so much, but not here.

Still, it was worth a try. Making up his mind, Tails flew over to the penthouse rooftop, towards a vent cover. Only if the ducts weren't going to work, he decided, would he try the garden entrance.

Stepping silently onto the concrete floor, the fox removed a small tool from his tail pocket that he'd started bringing along with him a few months ago, a habit that was now paying off: a multi-screwdriver whose tip could be configured based on shape and size. Quickly, he chose the correct one for the job, and proceeded to remove the screws from the cover, placing them neatly on one side before gently pulling the grate out. Once done, he turned on his WRID's flashlight and peered inside the dark hole.

Immediately after seeing the mountains of dust and debris inside that suggested it hadn't been cleaned in weeks, Tails had to resist the urge to throw up. _Oh, come on, even I cleaned my ducts back on Mobius!_

He placed the cover back on, but after thinking about it, decided not to apply the screws just yet. Nobody would come up here to notice it, and there was still a chance that he'd have to use the vent to get out from inside later, no matter how…uncomfortable it would be.

With only one other entrance available, Tails flew again higher into the air, checking the garden, especially the double doors, carefully. Soon he was able to make out a small dome camera right above it, the kind that made it difficult for others to see what direction it pointed at, but considering its position here, it wasn't too hard to figure out. A closer examination revealed that it wasn't pointing directly ahead or below, but slightly towards the left. He also saw that the door was locked by, of all things, an electronic keypad, right within the camera's field of view. Did Yeung have to type in his code every time he went to the garden to rest?

The fox thought carefully about how to proceed, or rather, how not to. He could not risk being spotted by the camera while he tried to hack the keypad, as it was likely being monitored in real time, and the security room didn't seem to be anywhere nearby from his earlier reconnaissance. In all likelihood it was on the ground floor of the whole building, and even if he did go all the way down there, he had no method of knocking out the guards without using his tails as blunt weapons, and that was out of the question here. And there was the chance the security room itself was being monitored. And there was the chance that the camera footage is stored on an internet archive and not only on an on-site tape, which would require even more effort to erase or replace…

Checking the camera's position again, Tails could only think of one more solution. It had its own risks, but not really any more than needing to manipulate footage, and far simpler – if he couldn't open the door, he could have someone else do it for him.

Landing on the roof directly above the door, the fox reached downwards and, taking a deep breath, knocked on the glass once, lightly but audibly, before shrinking back and ducking behind the barrier around the rooftop.

As he'd intended, he soon heard the door open up below him, and he peered over the barrier to see one of the guards inside walking out into the garden, looking around for any signs of the source of the knocking sound. Satisfied that it didn't indicate the presence of an intruder, the man turned around and headed back in.

This was the moment to act. Right after he was sure he was out of the guard's field of vision, Tails leapt over the barrier using his right hand, swinging himself downwards with his feet extended. He made sure to be doing so in front of the right door, just out of sight from the camera.

The guard continued walking as he heard the slam behind him, not noticing that only one of the doors had fully closed – the one on the right was held open by just a few inches, caused by the red and white shoe that had silently wedged itself between the door and the frame.

Grabbing onto the ledge tightly with his gloved hands, Tails climbed down slowly while gently pushing the door inwards as well as keeping his namesakes pointing upwards behind him. He had to admit he was panicking slightly, hoping that the guard didn't suddenly turn around to see him doing his clumsy Spiderman impression. It almost made him fear being embarrassed more than being caught. Almost.

After lowering himself enough, Tails was able to see through the door's glass window and check if the guard was still there, and was relieved to see that he wasn't. Taking the chance, the fox moved as much as he could to the left as possible to avoid the camera, before letting himself drop. He made sure to land on the floor not on his feet, one of which was still busy keeping the door open, but on his hands and tails, as they cushioned him nicely enough and made less noise upon contact with the shiny marble floor.

Finally, he sat up properly and held the door open with his hand, before crawling inwards and very slowly letting the door close, not wanting the guard to hear the doors close a second time.

Once the door snapped back into its frame with a gentle _click_, Tails couldn't help but smile at his efforts so far. _I'm in_. He got onto his feet and proceeded to sneak deeper inside, keeping an eye out for further security.

* * *

It took Sonic a bit longer than he'd expected to find Apartment 313, as he'd had to hide in a dark, stinky corner for a few minutes as two tenants came out of their homes to talk in the stairwell before walking all the way down. Rather than annoyance, however, the hedgehog instead actually felt bad for them in a way – this dump, with its odor and decay everywhere, really didn't seem like the best place to be forced to live in.

Eventually he made his way to the target apartment, standing in front of its entrance, a rickety wooden door. He peered into the keyhole, although he wasn't able to make out much beyond what seemed like one guy sleeping on a cheap mattress, and…an open window, large enough for him to enter? _Interesting…_

Right there, Sonic knew what to do. Not wanting to waste time, he raced back down the stairs, checked the street to make sure there weren't anyone out there, before heading out and turning to look at the windows up there. Fortunately, not many of them were open, and Sonic had already memorized the location of the apartment, allowing him to determine which one it was from the outside.

Now having a method of entry that didn't require noisily breaching the door, Sonic grinned and jumped onto the awning, which he used to bounce himself right up to the window, before grabbing tightly onto the ledge. The age of the building caused the plaster to crumble underneath one of his hands the moment he held it, briefly surprising him as he thought he would fall. Fortunately his other hand's grip remained secure.

Pulling himself up, Sonic clambered into the dark apartment. Although he continued to move silently, he wasn't really concerned anymore if someone outside had seen him climb in, as it didn't matter anymore. He was already this close. All of this would soon be exposed anyway.

Despite the darkness, he could see that the apartment was less trashy and, for lack of a better word, falling-aparty than the corridors and stairwell, but was nevertheless rather obviously aged, with cracks on its walls and floor and its interior colors all faded. And was that a cockroach that just scurried by?

There were only two rooms, one being the bathroom and the other being everything else combined together. There was only one actual bed, already occupied, so the other three guys had to sleep on mattresses on the floor. Carefully, Sonic stepped over them, trying to see where he should start looking.

To his surprise, it didn't take too long. His eyes soon lay on the large bag that he'd seen one of the men carry earlier from Rebecca's car, which was now placed in the middle of the room on the floor, amongst the three sleeping men. He made his way over to it and slowly handled the zip, or rather zips, to open it up, at the same time wondering about their decision to place it out in the open, rather than hiding it somewhere. Either they had no space to stuff it in here, which seemed rather likely, or they found it easier to guard it like this.

The answer came unexpectedly as, right after he'd opened the zip all the way but before he could check inside, Sonic suddenly heard the clicks of handguns cocking around him, freezing his movements. Inwardly, the hedgehog groaned. _So that's why they put it there_.

* * *

There were no further cameras inside the penthouse, Tails gladly found out, probably due to personal privacy reasons, which made his life easier as he got to the opulently decorated office he'd seen from his surveillance earlier, where a computer sat on an oak desk. He was lucky he was able to get to the room before his leg started aching again.

After closing the wooden door behind him, the fox checked the room for anything of note that wasn't visible from the outside. The most important one, it seemed, was the air vent in the ceiling, above a lit-up recessed area with some Buddhist statue. It seemed to be about the same size as the one he'd opened on the rooftop. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it, but he could not afford limiting himself only to escape options he liked.

Again making sure there were no cameras, Tails went over to the computer, pushed the power button and sat on the big chair, preparing to do what he'd come here for. The machine, needless to say, was password-protected, but he'd downloaded a password cracker program on Rebecca's laptop earlier, which was now stored on his WRID and could be launched via USB rather than a CD.

Connecting the WRID using its short integrated cable, Tails set the computer to boot from the USB drive instead of from the hard drive to let the program start automatically. The process would hopefully take just a few minutes, as was the standard. Until the password was discovered, he was just going to have to wait.

So far so good. Tails hoped that Sonic's own infiltration was going as smoothly as this.

* * *

In hindsight it seemed rather obvious. The bag was right there in the center, where he could be easily surrounded, and they had their hands hidden in some way while 'sleeping', either under their pillows or their bodies. He had no idea how they had expected him, but that was exactly what was happening now.

As surprised as Sonic was, however, he was most certainly not afraid. He may have been cornered, but he was still the fastest thing alive, not just in running but in reflexes. What advantage did these guys have?

Sonic observed their positions using his peripheral vision, and, confident in his ability to break out of this bind, almost smirked. _Let's see what you guys got_.

He ducked down and spun on the ground with his legs spread out, intent on kicking the two who were closest to him and behind his back and making them fall. He did not expect, however, their own legs to quickly move in and block his kicks, while still menacingly holding their silenced pistols over his face.

Their own moves had caught him off-guard again, and it was only by his own accelerated thinking did he manage to swipe the guns away with his hands at the last millisecond as they went off, thumping 9mm holes into the ground just a few inches away from his head to either side of him.

_Okay, you guys got lucky there_. Without delay or panic, Sonic sprang upwards with his head towards the man on the right, trying again to knock him down, feeling sure that he would score this time…only for them to deliver a sudden punch using their left hands, striking directly at his forehead.

"Ugh!" Stunned by the counter-attack and surprised again, this time much more so, Sonic rolled behind, away from these deceptively formidable opponents and towards the wall, his legs outstretched. When they made contact, he took two steps up the surface backwards while still facing the floor, narrowly avoiding more silenced shots headed his way. Before gravity could pull him down again, he pushed against the wall as mightily as possible, towards the one opposite him, before bouncing himself off of it and down at an angle towards the other two that had been further away from him. One of them almost punched him out of the air, although this time, Sonic, now more cautious, had expected it, and aimed his kick straight at his swinging fist rather than the face, neutralizing it, while his hands reached for the pistol the man held.

Sonic, to his relief, finally landed his first successful hit as he knocked the man down onto his bed and the gun away, but knew to immediately continue jumping as the others opened fire again. The bullets missed by scant millimeters as he leapt towards the ceiling, arms raising upwards to push himself down from there, landing right in the middle of the other three men and tackling their own guns away, while the fourth, already recovered, rejoined the melee.

Thus did the sparring begin. Their arms, both that of the men and Sonic's, were a blur as they rapidly tried to strike each other and defend themselves at the same time. Sonic noticed just how fast, ferocious and fluid each of their movements were, meeting and deflecting nearly every blow he delivered, the first time he'd ever seen any humans capable of doing this, something that earned his reluctant respect. The way one side matched the other was uncanny, even if they achieved it through completely different means – the men through years of dedicated martial arts training, the hedgehog through years of dodging projectiles fired from robots, as well as natural reflexes. A completely different sort of nature vs. nurture.

The longer they fought, the more each strike and block began trashing the place rather than the ones performing them, as the walls and nearby closets took periodic blows, their impacts causing debris to fly all over. The lack of space meant that Sonic couldn't use his trademark speed the way he normally did, by running. Blocking punches while standing in one spot was not really what he was best at, especially not for prolonged periods. As much as he hated to admit it, it seemed like he could get overwhelmed eventually, or at least the very least, get nowhere further if it went on like this. He needed to be able to move somehow to get the upper hand.

As he focused on breaking through his opponents' defense, the one nearest to the bed stepped backwards just briefly enough to grab his pistol again. There was just enough distance that he would likely be able to actually shoot the hedgehog while he was held back by the other three. Sonic, noticing this, realized he had to change tactics _now_, or else.

Finally he settled on an idea that could work. Never bring a knife to a gunfight, they said…unless it could help preventing it from even becoming one.

In the split second where he had just enough breathing room, Sonic stopped sparring and started spinning instead, his feet twirling him around at rapid speeds while his quills were raised and sharpened, like a deadly ballerina or oversized top.

It worked. Right there, the fighters stopped trying to attack and stepped backwards against the wall and bed, and for the first time they had expressions of concern on their mugs, although impressively enough, despite facing down a living buzzsaw that was coming closer and closer, not outright fear.

Before any of them could get the idea of tackling his legs to fell him, Sonic make sure to act yet quicker, as he normally did. He slipped out of his 'spinning top' mode in the blink of an eye, with his prepared fists hitting the nearest two straight in the abdomen, almost simultaneously. His punches, while not as strong as like Knuckles', could still be pretty mean, and here they were even augmented by the centrifugal force from his dance.

Sonic jumped up now, up to eye level height with the two incapacitated fighters, before elbowing them in the back of their heads to make sure they stayed that way, while pressing his heels onto their backs, using them as a springing board to lunge toward the remaining two, his right knee already raised towards the armed man.

The silencer on his weapon meant that he could not correct his aim in time before Sonic slugged him right in the kisser, and stepped on it with his foot again to launch himself towards the ceiling, and then bouncing back down at the fourth one, spinning. Even his training could not help him avoid the living cannonball bearing down on his face at that speed.

Only after Sonic ended his spin and landed back on the floor did the alert hedgehog, still ready to tackle at the slightest twitch, realize that the fight was over. All four were lying still on the ground. They'd put up a good fight, to be sure, but in the end they weren't anything he couldn't handle.

Glad that he'd gotten that out of the way, Sonic continued to search the apartment once more, starting with the bag that had been kicked around during the fight. Opening it wide, he began digging through its contents, including several more pistols, silencers, Molotov cocktails, ammo, even grenades, but most importantly, the USB drive, the sight of which made him sigh in relief.

Placing it back, he next went over to the wooden closet, which had several jagged holes on it caused from the trashing it received earlier. He opened its double doors, seeing nothing but a few cheap clothes hanging inside, but he was sure it wasn't that simple. His attention was now drawn to the rear wall of its interior, which didn't seem straight somehow. Checking the side of the closet, he noticed that it wasn't lined up against the apartment wall – there was a clear gap between them. He tried knocking on the wood several times, and the sound he got seemed to indicate a hollow space behind.

Without hesitating he punched the inner wall near the top, and was rewarded by the surface giving way completely. Removing the thin plank of wood and throwing it aside, Sonic came face to face with even more weapons that had been hidden inside - rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, as well as some other equipment such as folded bulletproof vests and…bombs? C4?

Realizing that there was no way he could take this much stuff away with him, Sonic took the smaller items, such as pistols on the floor, the explosives, and even their cell phones, packing them into the bag. Next he had to manage the unconscious goons somehow. For this, he was able to find some rope amongst their hidden supplies, which he used to tie them up after pushing together back-to-back. It took some effort due to how heavy and muscular they were, but managed to get it done in about a minute. He was glad Tails had taught him how to tie ropes before.

Hoping he had gathered enough evidence to solve this conundrum once and for all, Sonic slung the bag over his shoulder and got out through the window, the extra weight slowing him down slightly. After dropping down on the awning and back onto the street, he moved on to the only thing left to do before leaving. Unzipping the bag, he grabbed one of the random cell phones and dialed the Emergency Services number in Hong Kong, 999.

His call was answered after only one beep, whereupon a female operator said something in Cantonese he didn't understand. "Hey, uh, yeah, I'd like to report something," he said in English, speaking more gruffly in an attempt to hide his identity, "I think there's suspicious activity going on in, uh, Ma Tau Wai, I think, in front of, uh…" He looked around for something that could identify the exact spot, "Hong Kei electronics, red sign, on the street with the market, there's a green awning over the entrance. I saw them enter apartment 313 on the third floor, about four guys…"

As he continued reporting in the same silly tourist voice, a strange feeling overcame him, one of confusion and suspicion, and couldn't believe he hadn't realized it earlier. He remembered seeing five guys come out of that van before Rebecca went off the follow them. There were only four in the apartment. _Where'd the last one go?_

* * *

Sonic didn't know it, but the fifth member of the group had been watching over the apartment entrance from a nearby rooftop, having alerted his comrades to the hedgehog's arrival earlier via phone call. His paranoia, it seemed, had paid off after all, and acting as sentry had been the right decision. He hadn't heard from them after Sonic came back out and entered through the window, however, and the vantage point he'd chosen only let him see the entrance for possible intruders without being seen, not what had occurred inside their apartment - he'd had to make his way down to street level before going up another flight of stairs to the building opposite the one they were in.

By the time he'd reached there and taken out his binoculars, he had been seeing Sonic tying the others up before jumping back out the window with a bag full of evidence, the sight of which caused him great alarm. He knew his men were good at what they did, but expecting them to overwhelm Sonic in a head-on fight was still a bit too much. Still, that wasn't what shocked him the most – rather, it was how he'd managed to find them hiding out here in the first place. Hadn't they taken all necessary steps to prevent the hedgehog and fox from following? Or did they have some other tricks up their (non-existent) sleeves?

Knowing the situation was dire, he was already calling the man who'd hired them on his phone while running down towards the stairs, shortly after Sonic had gone far away enough. "Yes?" the male voice said groggily upon answering.

"Sir, Sonic found out about our hideout!" the man said loudly as he rushed towards the entrance and up the stairs, "he attacked my men and has taken a lot of evidence against us and you!"

The voice on the other end was a lot more awake now, and more moody too. "What? How did you let them find you?"

"We didn't! They must have done something to track us down. Sir, we must use plan B now!"

A few seconds of contemplative silence later, he got his reply as he reached the door and busted it open. "Fine. Begin immediately. You know what to do?"

"Yes. And sir, you better check your own house. It may have been breached too!"

"And you better not screw it up this time. Meet you at the spot in an hour."

"Understood." And with that, Yeung hung up.

He began untying his comrades with one hand while the other still clutched the phone, which he used to dial another number. "_Wai, On gor_?" the other voice said. "What's the word?"

"We've been compromised," he said tersely, relieved that the others were waking up now, albeit with visible headaches, made obvious by their cringing. "Plan B. Do it now."

"Roger that." That was all they needed to hear before the line went dead and Plan B began.

"Hey, get up, quick," the hitman told his gang, helping them up, "we need to pack up and get the hell out of here in five minutes."

* * *

Yeung had already gotten up from his king-size bed, now out of his slumber and fully in emergency management mode. Slipping his feet into the slippers, he impatiently got up to his door and swung it open. A guard happened to walking nearby as he saw his boss come out and approach him in his striped pajamas with a frown. "Boss? You're getting up?" he asked quietly, hoping he sounded innocent enough.

"Did you see anyone come in?" Yeung showed no sign of tiredness as he made the demand, only worry and forcefulness, which was rare of him.

"No, I didn't see anyone," the guard replied, although the way he was asked was already making him sweat.

"Are you sure? What about the cameras?"

"They did not report seeing anything either." He was already gulping mentally. Did the boss find out something that he or security hadn't? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Being a security guard wasn't exactly a high-paying job…

"Never mind," Yeung said dismissively, shaking his head as he walked out and closed the door, "continue patrolling. I'll be back soon."

* * *

Having broken into the computer minutes ago, Tails was still busy searching for possible files when he heard the voices outside. Uh oh.

His search had been slowed down by the fact that most of the data was in Chinese, and the few folders and files in English he'd checked were irrelevant. Only by copying and pasting the names into the online translator was he able to finally come to something that seemed important – folders titled 'Police profiles' and 'Shipping manifests' – but now someone was already coming.

Knowing that they were probably headed here now, it was time to improvise. Tails had told Sonic earlier that he wouldn't copy anything off Yeung's computer, but he didn't have a choice now. Fortunately the relevant files he had to copy had a total size of just forty megabytes, and his WRID read and wrote pretty quickly.

Once everything had been copied, Tails closed everything and hit the reset button on the machine, setting it to boot back from the hard drive before letting it start up normally. This was when his keen ears started hearing the footsteps outside, the soft tapping against the faux wooden floor slow but ominous. _Come on!_

As soon as he was able, Tails hit the shutdown button on the login screen, knowing that taking these steps was necessary to make sure Yeung wouldn't get a notification that his computer hadn't shut down properly the last time. Finally, it was time to bail, but Tails knew there was nowhere to hide in this room. In the last few seconds he had, the fox took the only option available to him.

The door swung open, and Yeung Chiu-wah practically marched into his home office, eyes scanning the place like a hawk…and finding nothing out of the ordinary.

But Yeung was not so easily convinced. He looked downwards to check the carpet. It did not appear to have been disturbed. He went over to his desk to check his computer. It was off. He turned it on. The booting process did not show any sign of a forced shutdown. He logged in. His password was still the same. He checked the folders with the most sensitive information related to what the hired hitmen knew. The files were all still in the same place. He looked around the entire room again. Overall, there was nothing to indicate that anyone else had ever been here.

Or was there?

Tails, now hiding in the ceiling air ducts and watching through the vent – thank god that thing used magnetic attachments – couldn't tell what Yeung was thinking as the man seemed to stare at the Buddhist figure in the wall and the nearby closet, the same things the fox had used to reach the ceiling without spinning his tails, which would have been too noisy. Was there something he had…noticed?

After that brief motionlessness, Yeung walked back out the door. "_Ah Man, zeon bei ngo ge ce_," he said gruffly to someone, probably the guard.

Tails had no idea what that meant, but he was sure it didn't sound like Yeung was going back to sleep anytime soon. And for that matter, neither was he, he thought as he crawled through the dusty duct, holding his nose and moving slowly to avoid making noise.

About a minute later, sure enough, Tails found himself emerging from the same vent that he'd unscrewed earlier on the rooftop, something he was now thankful for. On the flipside, his fur, gloves and shoes were naturally almost totally blackened, just like when he had to do this in Germany.

Sighing, both at his method of exfiltration but also in relief, Tails screwed the vent back on before flying off the building, toward the same spot he'd dropped Sonic at. Speaking of which…he activated the communicator on his WRID to contact Sonic's earpiece. "Tails?" the hedgehog's voice came on, one that he was glad to hear again.

"Sonic, you out?" Tails asked, somewhat redundantly, since otherwise Sonic wouldn't be answering.

"Yep," Sonic replied, "glad to hear you are too. You at the meeting spot already?"

"No, I'm a few seconds out."

"Me too. See you there. You won't believe what I found."

They both arrived at the same rooftop within seconds of each other, having decided there wasn't much point racing there. "Man, you did that same thing again last time?" Sonic asked after noticing Tails' body paint.

The fox shrugged. "Yeah, I had no choice, Yeung was about to come in all of a sudden. Anyway, what's in the bag?"

"Whole lotta nasty things that kill," Sonic said as he stared at his cargo, "guns, bullets, even bombs, if you can believe it. Oh yeah, and the USB drive. And their cell phones."

Tails whistled. "Wow. Quite the jackpot you got there. I managed to find some relevant files, though I didn't have time to look over them there. Gimme a sec…" he tapped a few keys on his WRID to get to the file storage section, and checked the 'Police profiles' folder first.

A few seconds of scrolling later, Sonic noticed that Tails' expression seemed to be growing more and more uncomfortable. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Uh, well…" A now nervous Tails brought the device over for Sonic to see, explaining, "I don't know how Yeung got this stuff, but there're a whole bunch of police officer profiles, all assigned to Tsim Sha Tsui. And…" He scrolled through the scanned documents showing the names, positions, photographs of various personnel in the Hong Kong Police Force, before stopping at one in particular – that of Rebecca Cheuk, which, unlike the others, had some sort of digital marking on it, and the file name was also slightly altered to make it stand out from the others. "…it looks like he may be on to Rebecca."

Sonic was now as wide-eyed as Tails. "Crap. Then we better get going!"

Soon they both reached the balcony where they'd taken off, and were about to walk up to Rebecca's bedroom door before realizing that it was open, and the room empty. "Hey, where'd she go?"

"No idea…even her mom's missing," Tails said, checking the other bedroom where Mrs. Cheuk had been. "Something's wrong, Sonic. They wouldn't just go out in the middle of the night like this."

They both looked around the living room for any possible clues, their worries growing with every passing second, until Sonic laid eyes on a small, familiar-looking object on the couch – a red cell phone that Rebecca had used to speak with her superior before they left. "Wait, isn't that Rebecca's?"

Picking the phone up, Sonic was about to hand it over to Tails for possible analysis before the thing suddenly started ringing, startling them both. The calling number, they saw, was a private one. The mobian duo stared at each other in alarm and bewilderment, unable to tell if the timing of the call was coincidental or planned.

Not having any alternatives, Sonic decided to answer the call. "Hello?" he said, trying to sound calm and neutral, at the same time putting the speaker on.

The reply that came confirmed their worst fears. "We have Rebecca and her mother. Come at meet us in half an hour," the accented male voice said.

"Where?" Sonic demanded loudly.

"I think you know already. Half an hour, no sooner or later, or they both die." Then the line went dead.

"'Think we know'? What the hell does that mean?" Sonic looked at Tails, hoping the fox knew.

"Maybe there's something in the files here that point there…" Tails brought the WRID up and checked the folder to be sure. "The shipping manifest, right! It shows the exact location of the most recent cargo destined for Fenglong Industries that's arrived in the Port of Hong Kong. But…" His face crumpled. "How do they know I got this? What did I do wrong?"

"Hey, don't, bro. It's more likely to be something on my end," Sonic said with an extended hand, knowing how his friend reacted if he felt he'd made serious mistakes. "It's like they'd been expecting us or something. We better go."

"A-alright," Tails replied, sounding more assured now, "just…just let me wash up first."


End file.
